Praise Be to Jashin
by YouActivatedMyTrapCard
Summary: Naruto gets a teacher... who happens to be a missing-nin. They come back, years later, with a plan and a drive to succeed. Hey, who ever said being immortal wasn't fun? Super!Naruto Super!Teacher-mentor-person-thing
1. The first chapter

**Praise Be to Jashin**

Chapter 1: New Beginnings **(oooohhhh, cliché, I likey ^_^ )**

**Author's Note: ** Please understand this before you begin to read this fanfic. I am simply using the Naruto-verse and its ideas for this fic. Many of the characters will either be OOC, or seem that way because that's how I interpret them to be. My writing might not agree with what you think Naruto or the other characters, or maybe some events should be like, but I don't really give a damn, just please, don't flame. I know that it can piss some people off, and I don't pay attention to it anyways. If you really need to let off some steam, go punch a pillow or something. Though, if you get your kicks from flaming people's fanfiction, not only do I have no sympathy for you, but I implore you do us all a favor and please remove yourself from your mother/grandmother's basement and get a life, and maybe a job.

I do have a quick thing to say about Naruto, and that is that I have the feeling from reading the Manga that he would have actually been an extremely smart child, except for the fact that abandoned children tend to develop learning disabilities and horrible people skills... so in my story, he's a genius. Deal with it.

Anyways, on with the fanfiction!!!

'Pitter patter' went the 5-year old's feet on the uneven concrete of the back alley. Sounds of the happy festival drifted along the breeze, betraying the solemn mood. He could hear the drunken shouts of the mob following him, as well as see the light of their torches drifting around the corner. "Just a little further," he thought to himself, spying a storm drain large enough to fit him on one of the buildings. To his utter horror, a Chunin he had not yet been "acquainted with" physically dropped down in front of him, tightly gripping a kunai in his hands.

"Today you die, demon brat," he said with a snarl.

Now, one might not think this is a normal life for a boy of any age, but Naruto Uzumaki was no normal boy. An orphan since birth, Naruto never had the luxury of having any parents, spending the last seven years of his life in total isolation. The only person he could even remotely call a relation was the Sandaime Hokage, and he certainly was not the appropriate father figure, being constantly busy running the village. As if that wasn't enough, for some reason, the entire village he lived in despised him, and saw it fit to deny him the right to breathe on an almost daily basis.

Demon. That was the word they used to describe him. He had no idea why, he had never done anything to warrant this behavior. He always made sure he was the model citizen, smiling to people as he walked down the streets, trying to help old ladies do whatever they needed, and, most of all, being cheerful, and happy, and trying to brighten everyone's day, although most of them didn't seem to want their day being brightened by him. Sometimes he would even lie awake at night, wondering why they hated him so much; what he, or possibly his parents, had done to warrant such a reaction. His birthday was most definitely the worst of all the days. On those days, the abuse got physical. On his birthday, he most appreciated his unnatural healing ability, for without it his body would literally be covered in scars, and he'd probably be dead from the beatings that had been given.

This year the beatings were different though. It seemed that the villagers thought he'd finally grown enough to upgrade their sticks into pointed objects. This year, he truly feared for his life. Even worse the than the villagers with their now pointed objects though, were the ninja, who actually had kunai, and shuriken, and swords, which could easily cause him serious bodily harm. Most of the time the ninja stayed well away from him, trying as hard as possible to maintain their professionalism; simply passing off the mantle of his torture to the normal villagers, but it seemed to Naruto that this chunin was fairly new to his rank, if the condition of his vest was anything to go by, and had his head in the clouds.

"Hehehe," the nondescript chunin chuckled, edging slowly towards the terrified boy, who was slowly backpedaling into a corner.

Feeling his back hit the back corner of the alleyway, Naruto gulped. Slowly, the chunin crept forward, his grin becoming more and more maniacal. As he raised his kunai for the killing blow, Naruto hastily squeezed his eyes shut, trying to pretend that if he couldn't see it, it couldn't hurt him. Patiently, for the first time in his life, he waited for death to come to him, finally realizing in a sudden epiphany that he truly had nothing to live for. No one loved him, no one cared enough to check on him, ever. Sure, Hokage-sama checked on him once in a blue moon, but Naruto, a genius under any other circumstances, was at least smart enough that he could see the look of longing in the Hokage's eyes every time he saw him, like he was remembering a long-lost friend. No, the Hokage had other reasons for taking care of him, at least, the little he did. 'Wait... wasn't there a kunai about to kill me?' Naruto thought.

Slowly, deliberately, Naruto opened his eyes, praying that the Chunnin had, by some stroke of dumb luck, decided not to kill him. On first glance, it seemed that the Chunnin had frozen mid-blow for some odd reason. After letting his eyes focus however, Naruto noticed the bloody point of wait- a _pencil_?- protruding from his forehead. Naruto stared at the dead Chunnin with unmasked disbelief. Seriously, how the HELL could a NINJA be killed by a PENCIL?

Coming to his wits, he hastily scrambled out of the corner just as the body crumpled to the ground, revealing the strangest looking person Naruto had ever seen, and that was saying something. He looked to be about 17 or 18, very young, and was tall; about 6' 10'', and obviously fairly well built. The most noticeable thing about the man was his hair, which was a weird brownish-blue that was kind of hard to describe in words, extremely curly, almost like a poodle, and MASSIVE. If asked to describe it, Naruto would probably estimate that it was about twice the size of the man's head; the worst (or best...) part being that it was ROUND! Not like, egg round, or maybe lumpy rock round, more like fireball-from-a-katon jutsu round. He wore a very interesting cross between a trench coat and a cloak that was black with a looping and swirling red pattern on it and looked like a cloak with with arms and a pointlessly large turned-up collar. His eyes were a dazzling midnight blue that gave Naruto the urge to stare straight into them, which was creepy, in a somehow enticing manner. His face was roundish, with slightly gaunt cheeks that gave him a slightly serious look without overdoing it. Of course, the look was slightly negated by the light grin on his face, not that it mattered much.

As equipment went, he had some pretty unorthodox stuff. Strapped to his back was a long, slender sword and sheathe that was about three feet taller than he was, maybe 9 feet tall or so. The weapon seemed slow and obsolete, and, for that matter, almost impossible to unsheathe. A glimpse inside of the cloak showed many pockets, packed full of senbon, kunai, scrolls, and brushes with ink. Sheathes attached to the inside of the cloak held four identical katana, all easily unsheathed with a flick of the wrist. Two small loops of intricately woven chain extended out of each of his shirt sleeves, hinting at something contained within. His visible body was covered in strange, swirling tattoos that looked vaguely like seals, and appeared to move when he moved his arms.

The man glanced up from the dead body of the Chunnin, and gave Naruto the stupidest grin he had ever seen, completely ruining the serious mood. Naruto sweatdropped, then, hearing the sound of the mob searching for him, looked around frantically for a place to hide.

"It's ok kid," said the man in a hoarse, haunting voice, "I've got us under a genjutsu; they can't find you."

"Gein-jubutsu?" questioned the young boy.

"An illusion." he responded.

"Ooohhh...?" said Naruto hesitantly.

"Whatever... Anyway, my name's Yakuro. No need to tell me yours, I already know it. Jashin-sama wanted me to take you into the religion as an apprentice, ad train you in the ways of being a ninja (killing things), and so I've been trailing you for the past few days, watching you veeery closely. At this point, I probably know more about you than you think you do. Ooh, hey, my pencil!" He said quickly, walking over to the corpse and plucking the pencil from its head as he finished.

He quickly dispensed of the body with a short string of handseals and a small Doton jutsu, burying the corpse in the ground. Pulling out a kunai, he began shaving off the wood from the pencil, which was coated in icky blood, whistling merrily as he did so. As he finished, he smiled merrily, checking the wooden projectile meticulously for any signs of leftover blood. Whipping out a small diary, he used the pencil to scribble furiously on the paper.

"Umm... Yakuro-sama?" questioned Naruto hesitantly.

"Yeeesss?" He replied, slowly turning his head to stare at Naruto while raising the kunai in his right hand, point up.

"Um, why not you just kill him with that?" He asked, pointing at the kunai, clearly confused.

"Because I'm trying to develop a fighting style based totally around pencils and sealing." He replied with an air of nonchalance, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ok...." Naruto replied, inching away slowly.

"What?" He said dejectedly, "Eternal life gets boring..."

There was a long, awkward silence between the two, at least for Naruto. Yakuro could seem to care less, sharpening his pencil as if what had just transpired was a normal occurrence. Left to ponder the bizarre nature of what had just happened to him, Naruto felt as if he had just been dropped into a fantasy land. Everyone else seemed to hate him, then this man appeared out of nowhere, not only killing his perusers, but offering him _training_? Even in his immature little five-year-old mind, Naruto knew that everyone had a motive for their actions. He figured the best place to start would be to ask him about that weird Jashin guy. He could tell though that something was off with this guy...

Steeling his resolve, Naruto walked up next to Yakuro, slowly tilting his head upwards until he was looking at the man's face. Tapping him on the leg, Naruto managed to gain his attention.

"Yakuro-sama, who is Jashin-sama?" He asked inquisitivly.

"Jashin is the God of the religion of Jashin, of which I am a member," He replied.

"Oh," said Naruto, "Why is it so special?"

"You really want to know?" Yakuro questioned. Naruto nodded vigorously.

"Ok then, sales pitch time!" said Yakuro excitedly, as if he had done this many times, and enjoyed it profusely, "(ahem) Have you ever been ridiculed by your peers? Does everyone hate you? Do you have low self esteem, or possible mental instability? Do you dream of bathing in showers of your enemy's blood? If you answered yes, no, or maybe to any or all of these questions, come join us in the worship of the god of chaos, Jashin! Upon acceptance into the religion, you will be given power, immortality, fame, riches, sex-slaves, glory, power, and the blood of your enemies. Just remember, occasional slaughter is mandatory, so weak-stomached devotees are discouraged. *pause* I have pamphlets…"

Naruto screwed up his face, his young mind trying to process all of the new big words. Failing miserably, he looked up to Yakuro and asked, "Yakuro-sama, what's immortabality?"

"It means that you can't die." he stated monotonously.

"Oh" said Naruto pensively. Slowly, his confused frown morphed into a wide, overly happy grin, and he yelled loudly, "COOL!!!! When can I start?"

Unfortunately, the genjutsu that Yakuro had placed upon them did not muffle their voices, and Naruto's loud shout of happiness attracted the attention of a roving search party composed of approximately seven fresh (and cocky) Chunnin. They fell suddenly in the alleyway from the adjacent rooftop, breaking the genjutsu. Yakuro pushed Naruto behind him, falling into a familiar taijutsu stance and surveying the assailants. The group was a ragtag bunch, the sort who made one quickly wonder if the standards for Chunnin in Konoha. They appeared to have little to no equipment on them, were swaying slightly as if drunk, and were in some of the most relaxed taijutsu stances either of the two had seen. The tallest of the group, clearly the leader by his cocky swagger, stepped forward, sneering at Yakuro hatefully.

"Hn. What're ya doin' protectin' th' demon brat like that?" He slurred drunkenly, "Think of a-all th' peopl' it's killled. Don' sha havvv friensh or famileee ish killled? Don' you wan' thm ta havv thrrrr revensh?"

"Not particularly," said Yakuro coldly, pulling a kunai out of his jacket "And frankly, although I know you don't care, I think its despicable of you and all the other participants of this mob to choose a defenseless five year old as a scapegoat for your lingering resentment at your inability to save your relations in the face of horrible adversity."

The Chunnin paused, the gears in his brain almost visibly turning, trying to get his drunken mind to figure out what the man had said. As if having an epiphany, the man's eyes widened, then narrowed in hatred towards Yakuro. "Shfine thennn. I guesh we'lll havvv to correcsh youwr attitush!" he said, his drunken slurring ruining any effect that the words might have had otherwise.

Suddenly sobering up slightly, the Chunnin gave a signal to the "search party". Responding to the signal, the group formed into a line, charging in perfect synchronization at Yakuro. Just as the first man in the line was about to reach him, the man jumped into the air, performing a fluid spin kick, which Yakuro deftly blocked with the flat of his kunai. The rest of the line followed suit, each performing their own taijutsu move upon him. It was obvious that they had rehearsed it many times, and it would have been a rapid and devastating move, if Yakuro wasn't obviously much faster than them, blocking each attack with ease. The last Shinobi in the line however, managed to land a hard uppercut in under his guard, and a loud snapping was heard as Yakuro flew backwards. The group gave a sigh of relief, thinking they had gotten off easily.

As the body hit the ground, it disappeared suddenly in a poof of smoke, and one of the group fell to the ground, spinal cord severed by a kunai. The other six quickly jumped backwards as spikes of rock shot up from the ground beneath them. Yakuro flickered into existence behind them, his genjutsu dropped. Smiling, he pulled his gigantic sword from its sheath in one smooth stroke. The shinobi drew their kunai in readiness, but stopped just short of attacking when they saw his sword.

The thing was made completely of precious metals, an interweaving mixture of gold, platinum, sliver, and a strange metal with a silvery-bluish hue. The colors shimmered and danced, and the sword looked as if it was on fire, the metals shimmering and glinting off what little light there was in the alley. The sword was covered in intricate and complicated seals, all in emerald inlay, and literally glowing with excess chakra.

Yakuro smiled, holding the blade up in front of him. "Say hello to... the reality blade. I spent five years of my life crafting the seals inscribed on the sides of this sword. Since you're all going to die anyway, I will give you the privilege of learning what it does. See the seals on the side of this blade? They do three main things: they act like an extension of my chakra system, they warp reality so that the blade will "bend" to not touch _anything_ but me unless I channel chakra through it in a specific way, and, lastly, they act as gravity seals, increasing or decreasing the force of my swing almost instantly. In one simple word, FUN."

Seemingly as an example, Yakuro twisted his wrist, swinging the sword gradually towards the ground... and the sword _missed the ground._ It didn't bend, or shrink, or change in any way, it just kind of… _missed_._ S_eeing this obvious display of power and knowledge _(knowledge is power)_, the Chunnin quickly realized that they were quite outmatched, and turned to leave. To their horror, there was a second Yakuro standing lazily behind them, sword drawn, eying them with a bloodthirsty grin.

"Now," he said, smirking ominously, "You will all die!"

And from him pored forth a wave of killer intent that rivaled the Kyuubi itself. He smiled slightly as the Chunnin, who were previously slightly cocky, turned white from fear, paralyzed on the spot by the KI he was releasing. Advancing on them slowly, he raised his sword, preparing to cut them all in half, but stopped as they all dropped to the ground, senbon sticking out of the backs of their necks.

Turning to his twin at the back of the alley, he smiled, noticing the remaining senbon held between his copy's fingers. "Thanks," he said succinctly.

"Glad I could help," said the copy, before it disappeared into a cloud of smoke. As his bushin disappeared, Yakuro looked slowly around the alley, stretching his senses to find any incoming danger. Turning to Naruto, he grimaced and said, "There are no search parties out as of now. We should be able to make it out of the city to my camp without a hitch. The whole camp has a seal-based protection on it, so we should be safe there." He turned, heading out of the alley, addressing a confused and awed Naruto over his shoulder, "Come now, we haven't much time. I know that you're tired, but we'll be safe soon."

Naruto nodded, mostly to himself, and then jogged to catch up to the tall, mysterious man who had saved his life. As he walked away from the point in his life that he would later call the darkest, he felt a new hope for the future, albeit one with a stranger he knew so little about. He didn't know why, but he could tell that his future with this man would be much better than his past with the village.

"We're here," said Yakuro, stopping suddenly at one of the more wooded training grounds. Naruto stopped just beside him and peered carefully through the thick forest.

"Um, Yakuro-sama, I don't see anything."

Yakuro smiled, "That is because I don't want people to see anything out of the ordinary. Otherwise it wouldn't be safe, now would it?"

"Oh!" said Naruto, learning his first lesson of many.

Looking around for passersby, Yakuro stepped into the dense forest, easily following a trail of carefully positioned leaves that Naruto could barely make out. They had traveled through the forest for what seemed like a ridiculously long amount of time, when they came upon a small clearing. In the clearing was a slightly large tent, located next to a modest fire pit carefully lined with stones. There was an unfinished tin of basic rations sitting next to the fire. Overall, the camp looked very quaint and tidy, and it had the telltale markings of a camp that had been well established.

Yakuro strode to the edge of the clearing, then motioned behind him for Naruto to stop. He knelt down close to the ground, then took Naruto's hand and channeled his chakra through it. Placing Naruto's hand at the edge of the clearing, he made a long stream of handsigns, finishing abruptly and slamming his hand forcefully into the ground. Around the clearing erupted a brilliant blue glow, and a long, circular string of seals became visible on the ground. As Naruto stared at the seals in awe, the glow slowly faded. As it finished, Yakuro removed both hands from the ground and strode into the camp, motioning for Naruto to follow him.

"You have been keyed into the sealing array," he explained. "You are now free to come and go as you wish. Under normal circumstances, anyone trying to enter this camp would be transported to a locator seal on the top of the Hokage Mountain."

Naruto looked around the camp, dumbstruck. He had obviously had too much happen in one day, and needed some time to soak it all in. "Tell you what kid," Yakuro said soothingly, "Head into the tent and get some rest. In the morning we can talk about your future."

Naruto stood in place for a minute, reviewing what Yakuro said, then nodded and headed into the tent to get some rest. As he removed his shoes and muddy orange jumpsuit, he could hear Yakuro moving around the camp, collecting firewood and cleaning up. As he snuggled into the smaller, yet still comfortable, sleeping bag in the tent, he could hear Yakuro humming a slow, mournful lullaby. For the first time in many years, Uzumaki Naruto drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face.

Naruto awoke suddenly to the sound of a bird chirping loudly outside the tent. Disoriented for a moment, he shook his head to clear his thoughts. As drowsiness left him, he remembered the events of the prior day: the attack, his rescue, Yakuro's offer. He smiled, remembering that this stranger had offered to teach him to become a Ninja. He had seen such people running around Konoha regularly, some of them had even attacked him at points. He could tell, however, that these Ninja were powerful and respected throughout the village, and he had always yearned to enjoy that life. The Hokage had promised to allow him into the academy, but Naruto seriously doubted that the teachers would agree to teach him. Now, however, he had a private instructor, one that was powerful to boot! Naruto had no doubt in his mind that this was a once in a lifetime offer; no one in the village would be willing to give him this kind of instruction, but he still didn't want to leave his home. He remembered from listening to the Hokage talk that, being a villager, he was free to leave the village at any time, and Yakuro would most probably do just that.

Giving up on the problem, which was hurting his young brain, Naruto disentangled himself from his sleeping bag, and proceded to leave the tent. As he exited, he looked around the campsite, noticing a happily crackling fire with some freshly cooked fish lying beside it on a small, inelegant metal plate. Guessing that the fish was probably for breakfast, Naruto picked up a smaller piece of the meat with his hands and proceeded to cram the fish into his mouth as fast possible. Hearing chuckling, Naruto turned around to see Yakuro leaning lazily against a tree, watching him eat with interest.

"I see that the first thing we'll have to work on is your manners," he said, grinning. Naruto, his mouth full, simply shook his head in response. Yakuro raised an eyebrow at this, but obviously decided to ignore it.

"Anyway," he said, changing the topic slightly, "I never formally asked you this, so I would like to ask you now: Naruto Uzumaki, would you like to become my official apprentice for the next seven years? Would you like to learn all I have to teach you of the ways of a Shinobi, as well as proper prayer to Jashin-sama?"

Naruto froze, his mind mulling over such a difficult question. "I know this is sudden," Yakuro said gently, "But we must leave before the Hokage suspects something."

Finally, after a long moment of perusal, Naruto's voice, firm and steady, broke the silence "Yes." he said, "I'll do it."

With that, Yakuro smiled, and began packing up his camp. Speaking to Naruto as he did so, he began to lay out his training plan for the next seven years. Finishing both his packing and explanation at the same time, he turned to Naruto. "But first," he said smiling, "We must train your mind Remember this, if you remember noting else from me: a smart Shinobi will always win over a solely powerful Shinobi, always. We will begin by teaching you math, reading, and battle strategy…"


	2. Let's all do the time skip!

**Praise Be to Jashin**

Chapter 2: Wtfrofl? Time skip? I feel cheated.

**Author's Note: ** Chapter 2! Sorry Chapter 1 was so rough and weird… I've had a hectic life lately, and I've been trying to write that for about 3 months now, so it's kinda like Frankenstein… or something. Just a note, Sasuke opening up might seem a bit abrupt, but I look at it this way: Sasuke has lived his whole life after the Massacre being pitied and looked down upon by those he would respect. When two people who have garnered his attention actually treat him like an equal, he doesn't know how to respond, and is forced to confront his problems and drastically change his outlook on life to explain this anomaly. It'd be like if you were crying and the President came and gave you a hug. What would you do?

Almost 7 years later….

Two unknown hooded figures stalked through the streets of Konoha, their black cloaks flapping in the light breeze. Night was falling, but that didn't stop the usual village gossips from running their mouths in earshot of everyone:

"I wonder who they are" one woman said suspiciously.

"I don't like the look of em" replied a short, mean-looking man, "they seem suspicious."

"Maybe they're here to assassinate the Hokage," said a lanky young man, "It'd be a help too; the man hasn't been the same since the Kyuubi left town, not that I blame it; I would've been scared too."

"Um," replied the woman, "They would probably sneak in if they were here to assassinate him."

"Oh, yeah… right." He said sheepishly.

Unbeknownst to them, the travelers had listened to their gossip, and had surreptitiously turned down a side street towards the Hokage tower.

In said tower, an aging Hokage sat at his desk, sulking behind an impressive stack of papers. Needless to say, all of the papers were horribly important to the safety, security, and happiness of the village, but somehow completely unnecessary at the same time, hence their important place at the desk of the most powerful person in Konoha, but also their arrangement, a seemingly unimportant pile. The Hokages, previous and present, had all been baffled many times over as to how long something could set on their desk without anyone giving a care at all, but then as soon as said paper was signed, controversy after controversy broke out.

This Hokage, the third Hokage to be exact, had been reinstated twelve years prior, and was thoroughly acquainted with the menace that was useless meaningful paperwork.

This, however, did nothing to quell his ever present boredom, or prevent the air of despair that constantly permeated the room. Yes, the title of Hokage was a prestigious title, one that almost everyone seemed to desire for, but inexpiably one of the jobs in the city with the least number of willing replacements. The Third had spent many a night perusing exactly why he had accepted the job from his successor, why he hadn't handed it off to some other poor person… like Kakashi… yes, Kakashi would do perfectly for the job, after all, all he did was sit and stare at the memorial stone all day… and that's no better than staring at whining bureaucrats and piles of paperwork all day… right?

The Third gave an audible sigh. Ever since Naruto's disappearance, he had lost faith in the village he was governing; he had lost his will of fire. The aging Hokage knew this, knew that his job would be no longer his quite soon, but could not bring himself to care about it. All he did anymore was sulk at his desk, and train for the day when his position would no longer be his, and he could go in search of the blond boy he had thought of as a son for so long.

Yes, the job of Hokage had taken an immense toll on Sarutobi; one that he was no longer sure that he could recover from. Sure, the villagers all adored him for the times of prosperity that he had brought the village, but his long reign had made him into somewhat of a god on earth, a man to be respected, but not one to befriend. Even his family had been alienated from him by his accursed job; he had never been there for either of his children, and now his remaining relation was in a state of professional loathing with him. No, Naruto was Sarutobi's lifeline to the world of the everyday, the one person who truly loved him, as a father and friend. He needed Naruto's companionship dearly; he yearned for it, and he was willing to go to whatever measures necessary to retain said companionship.

As he was deep in thought, he heard a light knock on his window. Used to the many bizarre entrances Ninja were prone to making, he absentmindedly flicked the latch open and opened the window behind him. Noticing the foreign chakra signatures too late, the Hokage looked up with battle-hardened determination in his eyes, ready to fight his assailants to the death. He gasped as one of the men, who were wearing black cloaks with hoods that covered their whole bodies, hurriedly slapped binder seals on his arms and legs, taking him by surprise. The other, shorter man applied an intricate seal tag to the window they had entered from, then the door leaving the office.

Turning to the other man, the short one said in a cheerful, melodious voice, "Seals are in place, no one can enter or leave, and the room's soundproofed."

Nodding to his companion, the other man turned to the Hokage and stared at him in silence, his unseen gaze unnerving the normally cool Hokage. A moment passed awkwardly between the two parties, before the Hokage spoke up.

"Now I know that you aren't here to kill me, so what do you want? Was this simply a demonstration of power? Or is it something deeper?" He paused momentarily, "Do you plan to try to interrogate me? If so, I must warn you that I am much too experienced for such actions to be fruitful."

The shorter man spoke, his voice loosing some of its cheeriness, "We want none of these things from you. In fact, we want something very different."

Lifting his hands, the man pulled back the hood of his cloak to reveal a head of unruly blond hair. The Hokage gasped, momentarily at a loss for words, for the surprise was simply too great.

The young man smiled, cocked his head to the side, and quipped, "I guess you remember me… Hokage-jiji."

"Naruto!" gasped the Hokage, this time using words, "You've returned!" He paused, "but, who is your companion? And, for that matter, _why_ have you returned?"

Hearing this, Naruto's smile faded a little. "Him?" he said, pointing to the other cloaked man, "He's my mentor, Yakuro-sama." He paused for a second, as if to collect himself, "And as to why I've returned, I would like to ask a few favors of you."

The Hokage nodded happily, eager to please his 'son.' "Just tell me what you need, and I will strive to give it to you."

Naruto smiled again, happy to have the Hokage's approval, "Then here goes… Hokage-sama, would you like to formally step down from your position, and instate myself, Yakuro, and yourself as Konoha's primary strike team?"

"Primary strike team?" asked the Hokage, confused, "But that is simply an old formality used to recognize strong ninja who do not wish to be Hokage. I'm surprised you even know of it." He paused for a second, thinking this move over. His eyes widened as he grasped the meaning behind this act, "But being on the strike team does not require a specific rank, allows you to move freely in and out of the village, allots you the ability to deny missions with no penalty, and gives you full access to all knowledge stored within Konoha… you're after the benefits, aren't you?"

Naruto smiled, "As you can tell, the three of us are all perfectly capable ninja; completely prepared for the assassination attempts that come with this position, and the freedoms it provides are unrivaled with any other position in all of the Shinobi Nations. And I personally can vouch for all of us when I say that we would prefer these freedoms."

The Hokage nodded pensively. Puzzling over the proposition, he began to think out loud, "Well, I can tell from the feat that you just accomplished that you have at least ANBU level skills: sneaking past all of the guard ninja and incapacitating a Hokage is no easy business, and for that, I am impressed. Yakuro is an unknown, but due to the fact that he is still your mentor he must be stronger than you… and I am certainly no question. Kakashi would make a fine Hokage, whether he was willing or not, so we're covered there. I think that the village would have no problems with this request; many of my actions in office as of late have been less than satisfactory in their eyes, and they would be more than happy to see me leave, so we're covered there. Most people don't know the benefits of the position, and you've been gone so long that people should have no objection to giving you the rank; most of them don't know enough about you to even have a slightly valid argument against your instating.

Yakuro, however, is another story. He will need to be snuck in under the radar. We might be able to cover up his instating into the ranks by making him a Genin, not very hard to do, but it will raise questions later on. His instating into the team will not be as important or noticeable as mine or yours, as we are less unknown than him, me more so than you. This will still be a great undertaking, however." He paused for breath.

"No, the bureaucratic mess will be cleaned up by morning, but many on the council are opposed heavily to any action I take, and will fight this tooth and nail." He paused, thinking. Slowly, gaining certainty as he went, he said, "Perhaps this will be the final wish of an aging Hokage leaving office; something to remember him by….yes, that should work perfectly!"

He turned his head to look gently at Naruto, smiling as he did so. "However, I have the feeling that you had thought of most of this beforehand, and, for your perfectly crafted idea, I am truly grateful Naruto. I hope that we will get to know each other better once again, given that I will have so much future free time."

The Hokage looked away from Naruto, glancing around the room, knowing that, finally, it could no longer be his. Struggling to remove himself from his chair, he remembered that his arms and legs were still bound. Looking up at Yakuro in embarrassment, he said sheepishly, "Would you mind unbinding me? I have so much work to do now and so little time in which to do it."

Yakuro nodded, and then stepped forward, removing the seals from the man with a serious look on his hooded face. As he did so, the Hokage sighed, moving each joint independently, listening to them give the satisfying pop of old age. Standing from his chair, the Hokage walked across the room to a table next to the door. Picking up a stack of papers off the table, he said, "You two are in luck; with the loss of Sakura from our class due to her parent's dissatisfaction, your addition to the ranks of graduating Genin gives us even teams. Now, I have a lot of paperwork to do and red tape to cut through, and then I still need to complete the Genin teams." Motioning to the window, he said to the duo, "I require some peace and quiet. Please, leave me to uphold my end of the bargain."

With a nod, the two removed the seals they had placed on the room, and then promptly left through the window. The Hokage watched them leave the building, avoiding the guards with practice ease. He shook his head, knowing that no child should have that kind of expertise. Dodging ANBU was a feat that not even Itachi, the greatest prodigy to ever come out of Konoha, however sad the fact was, could have done at that age. The aging man could only wonder how strong Naruto's 'mentor' was, to have taught the boy so much in so little time. After seeing the impressive display of power the two had purposely put on for him, he was impressed with the level of skill the man displayed.

'And from what I saw, he looked almost young enough to pass as a late graduate Genin' thought the Hokage. 'This will certainly be interesting… I know exactly what team to put them on… and I think I'll appoint myself as the sensei. I'm the only man in the village powerful enough to teach them anything, as well as being a good enough politician to cut through all of the red tape that duo will cause.'

Turning away from the window, the Hokage picked up a pen and began to tackle the paperwork necessary to complete all of the changes he desired. He knew he would be up all night, but the paperwork would hopefully all be done by the team assignments… which were tomorrow.

The next morning dawned bright and early upon the village hidden in the leaves. All throughout the town, the thumping of running footsteps could be heard by those just waking up. Still wearing their cloaks, the mysterious duo that had arrived the night before were already up for a morning jog around the village. They both knew that they weren't expected at the academy for another three hours, but they still had an intense physical regimen to do, and they were determined to do it… while wearing cloaks.

Needles to say, they caught the attention of Konoha's many early risers, the shopkeepers and ninja who had to start early. Now, training was a fairly common occurrence, and many people in the town had seen the, to put it lightly, quirky Jonin Mato Gai jogging through the town with a shout every morning, but to see people doing it in _cloaks_? That was a new one.

Oblivious to the thoughts of their passers-by, the duo continued their training, stopping off at one of the more secluded training grounds after another hour of jogging, the ninja continued their training silently, focusing on other strength-training, and performing light Taijutsu spars, eventually completing a 4-hour morning warm-up that would leave anyone but possibly Mato Gai and his young apprentice gasping in exhaustion.

Each splashing some stored water on their hooded faces in turn, they walked briskly to the academy, eager to meet the Genin they would, almost comically, be paired with. Walking back through the town, the two surreptitiously smiled at one another upon seeing the glances that were being thrown their way. Sadly, the cloaks meant to conceal their identity were making them stand out that much more… not that they didn't expect that to happen. As they neared the academy, Yakuro took hold of Naruto's shoulder and quickly pulled him into a back alley. Turning to face the bewildered boy, he lowered both his hood and Naruto's, looking the boy straight in the eyes.

"Now, Naruto," Yakuro, who hadn't aged a day in seven years, said gently, "I know that this will be stressful for you, coming back always is. I know you didn't want to do this, but, despite what you think, it is necessary to slowly cut all ties you have with this village before leaving forever, or it will haunt you for all eternity."

"And how long will that take, Master?" asked Naruto, slightly irked.

"Depends," said Yakuro evasively. "Knowing you, probably until everyone you care about here dies… in short, a long-ass time. But truly, it all depends upon you." Naruto looked quite downtrodden at this proclamation; he obviously had no desire to remain in the village any longer than necessary. Yakuro, seeing that Naruto was not happy with what he had heard, tried to cheer him up: "You know… I was thinking of offering an invitation to the Hokage."

Naruto looked up almost immediately, clearly shocked. "When… and why?" he asked.

"I was going to ask him just before the Chunin exams. As to why, you should know that. He's one of the strongest ninja in the elemental countries, and if we could remove his physical limitations, he would have the potential to eventually reach my level."

Naruto stared at him, mouth agape. "You cannot be serious! Yakuro-sama, you're like a GOD in human form!"

"Close to it…" Yakuro agreed.

"And you're saying he could be at YOUR level?" Naruto yelled.

"So could you… eventually. You just need enough time, and preferably some implanted bloodlines. Not everyone is as lucky as I was. But, yes, Sarutobi has so much potential and dormant ability it's not even funny. He reminds me of me before I became immortal…"

Sounds drifting over the wind were caught by their ears. Apparently, school was starting. Yakuro turned back to Naruto, pulling up both their hoods and saying, "Just remember, no matter what happens, I'm here for you… and don't kill anyone yet. Some of them might be useful… Now let's go."

And with that, the duo headed to the academy, passing their fellow students on the way. When they reached the academy, they asked the receptionist for directions to their classroom, which were promptly given. Upon walking into the classroom, they immediately drew the attention of all of the students. Surveying the classroom and finding no one satisfactory to sit with, they navigated to the rear of the classroom. As they found their seats, both of them quietly noticed that they were under the watchful brooding eye of one the most angst-y people that either of them had ever seen. Nodding to each other that they had seen his lingering gaze, they took their seats so they could discuss his actions without drawing attention.

Turning to one another, the both prepared to talk, Naruto letting Yakuro, who was his senior, go first, "It seems we have caught the jealous eye of the last Uchicha, Uchicha Sasuke. I believe he has sensed a fraction of the chakra we are naturally bleeding off, and has gauged our skill accordingly."

Naruto nodded, "He seems as if he wishes to gain the power he senses in us… if only he knew what he was getting himself into."

Yakuro smiled, "Comical, isn't it? I sincerely hope we are placed on his team. I look forward to taking his ego down a notch… repeatedly."

Naruto smiled as well. Glancing at Sasuke, he noticed that the boy was staring at them intently. As if realizing something horribly amusing, his grin turned into a smirk, and he turned to Yakuro.

"I have an idea. On my signal, we lower our hoods, and you give him the 'look.'" His smile widened slightly, "See what that does to his ego."

Yakuro smiled, silently agreeing with his companion. "As long as no one else sees, it's fine."

Naruto nodded, and then proceeded to glance around the busy room. Apparently no one had been able to keep their attention on the duo, and had slowly sunk back into their own conversations. He noticed the watchful eye of Nara Shikamaru trained on him, but decided that the boy was smart enough to realize the gravity of the information he would receive. Turning his head to Yakuro, he nodded.

Simultaneously, the duo lifted their hoods off of their heads, revealing their faces. Yakuro had his eyes closed, but it didn't really matter, as Sasuke was staring in wonder at Naruto, who he remembered seeing as a child. As he shifted his eyes to Yakuro, Naruto lightly tapped the man's shoulder, causing him to open his eyes, a sight which left Sasuke in total shock. In one eye, the Mangekyou Sharingan spun lazily… in the other eye, pupil-less eye of the Byakugan stared at god-knows what. Shocked by this revalation, Sasuke almost fell out of his seat.

Regaining his balance, he looked at Yakuro once more… to see normal eyes. Wondering if he had imagined it or gone crazy, Sasuke turned to face forward, waiting for Iruka-sensei to come and start class, confusion and disbelief plain on his face. Yakuro and Naruto turned to each other and smiled in unison, Naruto trying to not burst out laughing, and Yakuro trying hard to hold the smile on his face.

"I think we broke the emo," said Naruto quietly.

"I agree." Said Yakuro dryly, "Now shut up and wait for the Sensei to show up and assign teams. I agreed to your antics on a whim, but I find their lack of humor disturbing."

"Aww… Yakuro, you're no fun," joked Naruto.

"Exactly." said Yakuro, smiling.

Just as the conversation finished, the class Sensei, Umino Iruka, walked through the door. His mere presence in the room drew the attention of the graduates, all of them quieting down almost simultaneously. Iruka smiled at the rare show of courtesy the class had given him. Clearing his throat, he addressed the class.

"Now, as most of you have noticed, we have two last minute additions to the class, Uzumaki Naruto and Yakuro. Regrettably, neither of them was in the village during the Genin exam, so they were not passed through normal means…"

"But that's not fair, Iruka-sensei!" shouted the loudmouth of the class, Inuzuka Kiba, "How come they get to skip the exam?!"

Staring coldly at Kiba for interrupting him, Iruka answered, "They are allowed to skip the exam because they have a handwritten recommendation from the Hokage himself as to their ability, and he assures me that they have more than adequate skills to be admitted as Genin."

"Then why don't they be admitted as Chunin?" asked Choji.

Iruka sighed, "If you listened to the lessons this year, you would know that we have already discussed this. Instating ninja at any other level than Genin requires intense loyalty affirmation and large amounts of paperwork, something that the Hokages have been reluctant to do, which is why it happens so rarely…."

Seeing that the class understood what he had said, and was dangerously close to going into lecture zone-out mode, Iruka stopped himself, deciding instead that time was of the essence; they were already behind schedule slightly. Picking up a paper from his desk, he smiled and faced the class, saying, "Now I will read off the team assignments, as well as the Jonin you will be paired with. Now, let's begin…"

With these words, the class immediately zoned out, none of them being interested in anything except their team placement. As each student's name was called, each would perk up momentarily, waiting to hear who their instructor would be. Eventually, all of the names but three had been read off. As Iruka read the first name on the team, everyone in the class perked up, wondering who the mysterious newcomers would be paired with.

"Yakuro… Uzumaki Naruto… Uchicha Sasuke. Your sensei will be," he paused for a minute, and then walked out of the room, obviously confused with what was on the sheet. As he left, the class was sent into uproar, wondering who the Sensei was of this obviously powerful group. Many complained that they couldn't have one of the stronger graduates on their team, to help pick up slack, but most of them were simply joking. Sasuke spent the whole interlude glaring at Yakuro and Naruto, who were happily chatting with not a care in the world, as if trying to will them to make him stronger. Shikamaru also stared at the duo, but in a more contemplative fashion, wondering about the display of power that had gone on just minutes ago, and why he was allowed to witness it. After about five minutes, Iruka hurried back into the room, slightly flustered.

"I'm sorry," he said, placating the class, "But I thought there was a mistake in the team assignments, but apparently there is no mistake." He cleared his throat, then tried, and failed, to look important. "A very strange and unprecedented thing has occurred, and I am proud to be part of this no doubt historic moment."

He cleared his throat, and then read the final assignment, "Yakuro, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchicha Sasuke, you will be paired with… Sarutobi Hiruzen."

And with that, the class broke into a flurry of discussion. Sasuke simply sat in his seat, looking genuinely shocked for once in his life. Iruka had not been exaggerating, this truly was an unprecedented move by the Hokage, and most definitely a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the team. Did this mean that the Hokage had stepped down? Well, he couldn't hold both positions simultaneously, so, really, _when_ did he step down?

The main question on everyone's minds after hearing the announcement was, 'Wtfbbq?' Seriously. No one knew what to think. Something like this had NEVER happened before. A Hokage didn't simply step down; a Hokage DIED. That was how you lost the job… you DIED. For a Hokage to choose to demote himself, that was just something that didn't happen. Many of the occupants of the room were horribly jealous of the three Genin. Who wouldn't be? A chance to train with the Hokage – oh, former Hokage, the man that had trained the Sannin, no less, was a chance many would kill for.

As the minutes ticked by and the noise level showed no signs of decreasing, Iruka grew more and more impatient, finally forming a few hand signs and yelling out, "SHUT UP!" And with that, the class was silent.

Iruka took a moment to compose himself, "Thank you. Now, before you leave with your teams, we will take a quick lunch break." He paused, "Before you leave, I would like to congratulate you all on achieving the rank of Genin. Good luck to all of you on the upcoming test."

He walked out of the room with a smug look on his face as calls from his former students assailed his ears, asking him what kind of test it would be, what it was for, things of that sort. As the students watched him leave, they gave up on their questioning; talking amongst themselves as they slowly left their seats and filed out of the room. After all of their classmates left to enjoy their lunch, the remaining students, who all happened to be on the same team, looked warily at each other.

Slowly, Uchicha Sasuke removed himself from his seat, and, for the first time in quite a while, humbily walked over to sit next to his teammates. As he did so, Naruto smiled warmly, enviting him into the group silently. Sasuke sat down silently, staring at his team members, as if willing them to speak first. After a few moments, Sasuke grew uncomfortable, then finally broke and initiated the conversation. "So… we're on the same team," He said, lamely.

Yakuro nodded in agreement, then spoke: "We will have to trust each other. All successful Shinobi teams trust one another and can work in tandem. No matter how strong one man gets, if his enemy is coordinated and has superior numbers, he will fall."

Naruto nodded in agreement, "We need to have more than trust: we need to be able to work together seamlessly, even to predict what each other will do. We need to have a level of intimacy that most people would not be comfortable having."

Sasuke nodded grudgingly, and then began to talk slowly, as if it were the last thing he wanted to do right now, "I understand what you're hinting at. Speaking from a professional standpoint, I need to let you all in, but, speaking from a personal standpoint, I can't do that yet. My whole family… died, and I still need to cope." He hung his head, obviously trying not to cry.

Naruto nodded in understanding, and then said gently, "Until you do, we can't function as a team, and you will only become more and more miserable. This is a problem that we have to correct early, as I expect that Sarutobi will start our team off with much higher ranked missions than normal. A sink or swim challenge; it's his style."

Yakuro piped in, "He does not yet know our skill level, and wishes to test us. I expect him to skip our entry exercise altogether, opting instead to begin with harder missions, which, although rare, has been done before."

Looking at his new companion, Yakuro noticed that Sasuke hadn't heard a word he had said, and was instead trying his hardest not to break down into tears. Yakuro got up and walked over to the shuddering Uchicha. He gently put his hand on the younger boy's back, then said, "I understand this is hard for you, but as soon as I walked in, I could see that the Massacre has consumed your life. You need to move on. Wallowing in self pity will get you nowhere, and revenge against someone as powerful as Itachi is a lifelong feat. If you continue down this path, revenge will consume you, and your entire life will be a complete waste."

Sasuke nodded sullenly, grateful for the advice, no matter how hard it was for him to face his faults. "Thank you both," He said quietly, "For telling me this. I know my change in behavior is kind of abrupt, but no one has ever tried to comfort me before."

Yakuro smiled and nodded, "I expected as much. Now, since we're a team, let's find a nice place to sit and talk while we wait for everyone to come back."

The trio resituated themselves to a group of desks at about the center of the room and began happily chatting. After about thirty minutes, clusters of people started filing back into the room. Just after the last Genin entered the room, Iruka casually strolled in, most of the Jonin-sensei following behind him. He waited for the instructors to look over the prospective Genin, then turned to the class, motioning for them to be silent.

"You will now be leaving with your respective Sensei. Starting from the end of the row, each sensei will announce their team, and then that team will follow them out the door." The Genin jittered with anticipation, all eager to start their Ninja career.

The old man on the end stepped forward. "I am Sarutobi Hiruzen. Team 7, please come with me." And with that, Sasuke, Naruto, and Yakuro got up and followed their new sensei out the door.

As Team 7 arrived at one of the more remote training grounds, the former Hokage turned around and faced his new students. Seeing Sasuke's confusion as to why he was their teacher, he addressed the group.

"Before we begin, there is something I must tell Sasuke. I would like it if you two were here as well." Turning to face just Sasuke, the aged man began: "I know this is going to sound a little harsh, but, sadly, it is the truth, and you need to hear it. I was not placed as the head of your team by the council, who all seem to adore you for the genes you carry and bend over backwards to your will. I will not favor you, nor will I pamper you; you are a Ninja now and I will treat you as such. You were only placed on this team for the benefit of Yakuro and Naruto." He paused, catching his breath, and then began speaking again, in a _slightly_ lighter tone, "They are, in actuality, at at least ANBU level, of this I am sure."

Sasuke's eyes widened, then he opened his mouth, preparing for a flood of questions. Sarutobi motioned for him to stop, then continued, "I did not introduce them at that level due to the stir it would create. Additionally, I needed to introduce them in an inconspicuous form for one main reason: we will be re-forming Konoha's Primary Strike Team, and I want to do it as quietly as possible."

He continued, falling into a longer explanation, "You see, as the strike team we will be able to act independently of the Hokage and all other governing bodies, including the Council. That is the reason it was originally created; as a team that could do risky stuff and take the fall for it themselves. They didn't need to cut through red tape, they just went under it. As such, the re-formation of this team would have been heavily opposed if I had made it so public. Right now, it will be covered up by the announcement of my stepping down and taking a Genin team."

He paused, allowing a stupefied Sasuke to soak all the information in, "This team was not created for you, as you probably believe. It was created for Yakuro and Naruto. You are the only current Genin strong enough to not hamper them in their activities, and to not literally kill yourself while trying to train with them. The reason I have placed myself as your sensei is simple, I am probably the only person in the village who is strong enough for them to take orders from."

He turned to Yakuro and Naruto to confirm this fact. They nodded in agreement, then came back to stand with the other members of their team. They turned to Sarutobi expectantly, waiting for him to issue orders.

"Now," Sarutobi said, addressing them all, "I need to gauge your skill. I propose that we have a simple series of duels. I will provide for you between 1 and 50 solid Kage Bushin opponents. As you destroy them, I will gauge your skill level, and then adjust the number of active clones in the fray accordingly. Hopefully, I will receive enough information from them of your fighting style to discover weaknesses, or maybe just weaker points. From there, we can work up. Sasuke, you can go first."

With that, Sasuke did a quick stretch and moved to the center of the training ground. One copy of the old Hokage appeared, decked out in battle armor, actually wearing a headband. As Sasuke shifted into a tense fighting stance, the clone charged him, dancing around the boy with a series of light punches, testing his guard. After a good fifteen seconds of light sparring the bushin backflipped away, throwing three Kunai at Sasuke, who backbended under them. As he came up, a fist connected with his chin, as the bushin had jumped back towards him. Flying backwards, Sasuke brought his knee up sharply, connecting with the surprised bushin under the chin, causing the clone to dispel.

As the clone dispelled, Sarutobi nodded, the influx of information showing him weak points in the boy's style. "He is overconfident." Sarutobi muttered to himself, creating another bushin.

"I agree," said Yakuro from well out of earshot of the mumbling, before turning back to the fight.

As the second bushin appeared, looking the same as the first, Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Jumping away from the clone, he began a string of handseals, then sucked in a breath. He shouted, "Fireball Jutsu!" and began expelling chakra from his mouth. As he released his Jutsu, he noticed the clone forming a string of handseals as well. Just as his fireball was about to hit the clone, a geyser of water shot out of the ground, putting out the fireball before it could reach the clone. Said clone smirked, then drew his katana and charged. Sasuke drew a pair of Kunai, preparing for a blade fight. As the clone's blade flashed towards him, he parried the strike with his kunai, surprised by the force behind the blow, as they deflected one another instead of holding. Crossing his blades in an x, Sasuke waited for the clone to strike again. As the clone struck, Sasuke captured his blade between the kunai, and then twisted, wrenching the blade from the clone's hands. Dropping the blade, Sasuke took one of his kunai and jammed it into the eye socket of the defenseless clone.

Sarutobi, upon receiving the influx of information, motioned for Sasuke to return to the rest of the group. When the boy arrived, the aged Ninja gave him a congratulating smile, then addressed the group.

"I know enough now. I should be able to correct many of your problems, the main one being the integration of your various skills into one another. Naruto, you can go next."

Naruto walked out onto the field, smirking all the way. As the clone appeared, he made a clone of his own, sending it to fight instead of doing it himself. As the clones began a fairly predictable taijutsu battle, the Hokage became irked.

"Naruto," he called, "Please fight the battles yourself."

He heard shuffling behind him, then a quiet, "OK", as Naruto walked out onto the field, dispelling both of his clones. The Hokage frowned at this action, wondering when Naruto had replaced himself with a clone. Nonetheless, Naruto still walked over to where the Sarutobi clone was situated and dropped into a lax battle stance, his feet shoulder width apart, his left foot shifted slightly back, but not much, and one hand held out behind him.

Sarutobi immediately frowned, "I've never seen that style before, but the stance is flawed." Turning to Yakuro he asked, "Did he invent that style?"

Yakuro shook his head, "No, I invented it, and the form is not flawed. I call it the False Fist, and for good reason. Watch."

They turned back to the fight just in time to watch the confused clone make the first move. Charging toward Naruto, the clone performed a right hook, attempting to smash through a break in the boy's guard. Suddenly, the boy shifted. All Naruto's weight was instantly shifted to his back leg and he bent backwards, avoiding the fist. His hands darted out and grabbed the offending arm at the wrist and elbow, and then he flipped the clone over his head and slammed it into the ground, the impact causing the clone to disappear.

The Hokage's eyes widened. The move he just observed rivaled in power and usefulness that of any other move he had ever seen. He glanced over at Yakuro. This young man had INVENTED this style? For that matter, there was more of this type of move? The Hokage had certainly seen moves like it, but the sheer fluidity and surprise of the move astonished him. It reminded him slightly of Orochimaru's style, in that the moves weren't telegraphed. But, unlike Orochimaru's style, which simply relied on the element of surprise, this style centered on it. It was obvious form that simple move that the style would be deadly to anyone who had not encountered it before. In a duel, its supremacy would be unrivaled. Without any other opponents, all one would have to do was wait for the opponent to attack, then BAM, instant kill.

He shook his head. There was no possible way anyone below the level of one of the Sannin could have come up with a style like that. There was obviously no point in continuing this examination after Naruto was finished. A ninja like Yakuro would end up winning this fight and telling him almost nothing about his skills. Hopefully he could rely on the man when he needed him, but he was almost certain he could. Besides, if Naruto could trust the man with his life, then he could too.

He turned back to the match, creating another four Kage bushin, which all rushed at Naruto and engaged him in taijutsu. Much warier this time, the clones struck quickly, leaving him plenty of room to dodge, but almost none to counter. Finally, his foot slipped and his form faltered, and the clone that was coming in with a simple punch shifted his weight and came in for an uppercut. Naruto followed the force of the uppercut, rolling his head backwards and jumping slightly for momentum. Pulling his feet up, he squeezed the clone's neck between his feet and used his momentum to flip the clone over his head, slamming the clone into the ground and allowing him to land lightly.

The Hokage froze upon seeing this move, practically salivating with anticipation. This style was AMAZING!! It took the idea that most Shinobi are inherently cocky and would capitalize on a perceived advantage and exploited it. Using unpredictable and unorthodox moves, the style allowed the user the constant element of surprise. And, from what the Hokage could see, the moves were diverse enough to combat any single assailant with ease. Screw teaching the team; let Yakuro teach HIM. If this was the kind of goodies that the man gave to his students, Sarutobi couldn't wait to grill the man for techniques himself.

As if sensing his thoughts, Yakuro shifted uneasily between his feet. Looking over at his Sensei, he smiled and nodded his head towards the match. Sarutobi paused for a second, then, remembering his words from earlier, shook his head exasperatedly and formed five more clones next to Naruto, all of which immediately drew swords.

In response, the boy drew two shorter katana from their scabbards hidden in his cloak. Both were curved slightly more than normal katana, as if designed for a specific style, and were crafted out of pure steel with a sealing array etched into them in gold. Sarutobi widened his eyes again as he realized that the seals gave the metal chakra conductive properties. Naruto held his left sword out in front of him sideways, and dropped the second sword to his side in a reverse stance. Once again, Sarutobi was confronted with a style that he had never seen before.

Nonetheless, the clones simultaneously dashed towards Naruto in a zigzag pattern, swinging their blades into striking positions. Once again, Naruto stood immobile until the last moment, when his blades became a flurry of movement, the blade held in front smashing through the clone's attacks one by one, and the other blade following up with a quick, surgical strike to the neck, severing the muscles and arteries there. There was a micro pause, with Naruto left wide open to attack, and then the clones simultaneously burst into smoke.

Sarutobi motioned for Naruto to return to the group. As he approached, Sarutobi called to him, "A little risky, letting your opponent that close before truly analyzing their strengths, but effective nonetheless."

Naruto smiled, "It may be risky to you, but not to me or Yakuro."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow, "And what does that mean, young Shinobi?"

Choosing to not respond to the question, Naruto turned to Yakuro, asking, "Should I demonstrate?"

Yakuro simply nodded in return. Naruto took a kunai from his holster; then spoke to the remainder of the group, "See this kunai," he tapped it against the hilt of his sword, "It's real, see." Sarutobi and Sasuke nodded. In one motion, Naruto plunged the kunai into his temple, causing blood to spurt wildly from his head. "And I'm still alive, right?"

Sarutobi nodded dumbfoundedly, and Sasuke stared at Naruto, salivating slightly at the idea of having that much power in his grasp. Waiting for them to respond, he pulled the kunai out of his head. "Me and Yakuro are immortal. That's what that means. We don't take risks; we just screw up and end up pretending to be dead. In fact, Yakuro is…" he turned to Yakuro for help.

Yakuro nodded slightly and said, "5168 years, 147 days, 13 hours, 35 minutes, and 21 seconds old, and I've been 'killed' 347 times. I keep track for kicks."

Sasuke nodded sullenly and said, "That's an understatement." Naruto snickered slightly at this comment, and Yakuro simply rolled his eyes

Sarutobi nodded slowly, watching the wound on Naruto's head stitch itself up before his eyes. He had heard of immortal Shinobi wandering the earth in times past, worshippers of a god named Jashin, but that one of the followers had killed off all the other members. "In that case," he said hesitantly, "I shouldn't need to test either of your skills. With that power alone you become at least B-ranked Shinobi, and that doesn't factor in any other skills or training."

Yakuro nodded. "I personally took out an entire invading army in the Land of the Waves during the first Shinobi war, so I shouldn't be a problem. Besides that, I can vouch for you that Naruto is definitely strong enough to take on anyone in the village, so we should be good. Sasuke, however, might need some training."

The former Hokage turned to Sasuke. "Well, young Uchiha, it looks like you've got very good luck. You are currently on a team with, I am assuming, the three strongest Shinobi in the village, and you will be training with them. No doubt you will soar to great heights, no doubt at all. In fact, you should be ready for the Chunin exams by at least the next one."

The Hokage took out his pipe and lit it, staring at the clouds pensively. He glanced around the training ground, and then, spying a flat rock, went and sat down. His team followed eager to hear what he had to say to them. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Yakuro piped in, asking, "So, what are we going to teach our young apprentice?"

Sarutobi shook his head, "I do not know… I was thinking starting with basic Chakra exercises, which you will not be needed for. If you would like, you may head over to the tower." He paused for a second, then handed him a handwritten note from his robes, "You can give this to the receptionist. It will allow you full access to our archives. Feel free to add some of your, most likely, vast wealth of knowledge as well."

He turned to Sasuke, eyeing him critically, "If you need me, I will be out here with Sasuke, working on some serious ego issues." He smiled briefly, "Now, as Sensei, I call the first official meeting of team 7 to a close."

And with that, the group dispersed, Naruto and Yakuro headed to the Hokage Tower to study, and Sasuke and Sarutobi headed to a more secluded portion of the training field to begin training.

**Final A/N: ***Huff, Huff* Finally done. Sorry for the wait, this chapter's about 4 times longer than one of my normal ones. I hope you like it. I tried to not spring any surprises, but maybe I got someone. If you have comments, feel free to post. If you see a grammatical error, or have a better wording for a phrase, feel free to post that too. Once again, no flames, please. They're really stupid. Really.


	3. I put the S in Sexy

**Praise Be to Jashin**

Chapter 3: S-Classed… Wut?.

WARNING: This is not beta'd; read it at your own risk… grammar freaks beware

**Author's Note: ** Chapter 3 is here! One note of business, the upload ate my scene change lines… sorry I didn't notice. I've changed them up… hopefully the new ones will actually work. In this chapter, at about 4,000 words, Sarutobi will say stuff that he does not know in the Manga, nor does anyone else. I view his shortcomings in perception in cannon not due to his lack of skill, but rather to the fact that, as the Hokage, he has too much to worry about and not enough brainpower to think critically about every little piece of information he receives. The information he uses here was pieced together from small pieces of information that he received that seemed useless alone. He simply did not have enough time to piece what was there together in Cannon.

You know, I find it funny that I've had less hits and reviews for this than my first story published here, and yet this is twice as long already… oh well.

NOTE: I tried looking up names for all of the people, but it's really boring and detracts from my writing ability by cutting me off in the middle of a thought. If you see a mistake, please let me know so I can fix it. I know it irks the hell out of me when people do it, so please do me a favor.

New to the Fanfic… A KEY!!!!!

This is how I type stuff

"I Speakem The Better Grammar"

'I's be talking to the voices in my head…'

_Emphasis_

**Heavy Emfasys**

"**I's be shouting… or a demon… not sure which."**

'**Despite the fact that this will never happen, I's be a thinkin' demon'**

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Dawn came bright and early once again to the village of Konoha. The residents there, however, had taken to wearing earplugs and burying their heads in pillows to avoid the loud shouting that had permeated the entire village every morning for the past weeks. Unbeknownst to the havoc they were unconsciously creating, two strangely hyperactive immortals jogged through the town, doing some simple endurance training. However, they were both multitaskers to the extreme, and were not only increasing their stamina, speed, and agility by sprinting through the streets, but were also increasing their lung capacity and resistance to torture while doing so. What were they doing to obtain this extra training, one might ask? Simple, they were singing.

A single black cat with a bow tied around its neck hissed and ran away as sound drifted up the street. Unfortunately, it slowly got louder…

"Ooooohhhhh, I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves. Everybody's nerves. Everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goooes…"

A carrier pigeon fell to the ground, momentarily stunned by the horrible new form of audible torture. Sadly, Naruto and Yakuro seemed unperturbed, despite the numerous kunai and senbon sticking out of their bodies. Behind them ran a small, yet still murderous, mob of early risers, intent on beating the shit out of the two most annoying people in the village. Much to their dismay, the young men were both much faster than the mob could manage to run, but had decided to torment them by running at their exact speed as so to stay just within earshot.

This mad chase continued for quite some time; at least until well after the sun had broken through the tree-line. Yakuro glanced up at the sun, and then hesitated for a moment. He subtly motioned to Naruto and the two cultists put on a quick burst of speed, dashing ahead of their pursuers. Yakuro gave a quick look backwards, and then nodded to Naruto once more, causing him to grind to a halt. Yakuro formed a set of handseals, and then they vanished with a pop, leaving behind only a fine layer of dust on the ground.

Moments afterwards an angry mob rushed around the corner, expecting to see their pursuers, only to find nothing. Stumped as to how they got away, the mob stopped their frantic chase and quickly dispersed back to their normal activities, although some, who had initiated the chase, were forced to walk clear across town.

There was something special about those two new gennin; everyone knew as much. Sadly, however, no one had seen them do anything other than stamina training, and no one had been able to spar with them either. The trained Shinobi could all see the carefully refined posture the two possessed, marking them as veteran Shinobi, but none had ever seen them fight. No one even knew their chakral capabilities, as they had both actively avoided any competent members of the Hyuuga clan. They had no friends within the village, they confided in no one, and, besides their morning workout, were almost never seen in broad daylight. They were true ghosts, like Shinobi strive to be. Everyone knew of them, but only their teammates truly _knew_ them.

Meanwhile, in training field 14, Sarutobi and Sasuke were hard at work, Sasuke working towards becoming a better ninja, and Sarutobi working towards… being less old. Both were engaged in a highly intensive cardiovascular training regimen, which was a fancy way of saying they were doing pushups… with rocks on their backs. At the insistence of Sarutobi, the two were having a small competition to see who could complete the most pushups in ten minutes. Needless to say, Sarutobi was winning… with almost twice as much weight on his back.

With a sudden flash of light, Naruto and Yakuro appeared on the field, a short ways from the pair. They simultaneously turned to each other and slapped their hands together in a high five.

"Yosh, Yakuro-sama!" said Naruto loudly, "That warm up was amazing! Our flames of youth burn BRIGHTLY!!!!"

"YES!" replied Yakuro, even louder, "We are truly in the **SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**"

A scarily familiar scene appeared behind the two, much to their teammates dismay. Even more to their horror, the pair began running towards each other with scarily happy smiles on their faces, shouting like idiots:

"Yakuro-sama!"

"Naruto!"

"Yakuro-sama!"

"Naruto!"

As the two neared each other, Sasuke and Sarutobi's eyes widened to an impossible size. The grass around the duo withered and died. Squirrels fell out of trees. Birds flew away. Giant, man-eating centipedes ran for dear life. The sun hid behind the clouds… you get the picture.

Suddenly, just as abruptly as it had started, the genjutsu ended, and the duo, an arm's length apart, burst out laughing. Realizing that they had been fooled, the remainder of the team stalked over to the cloaked duo, who were bent over, gasping for breath. They waited patiently for a few minutes, finally giving up when neither showed signs of stopping.

"It wasn't that funny." growled Sasuke. This only caused the pair to laugh even harder.

Sarutobi, finally giving up as well, added, "If you two don't stop, I will be forced to accept only D-rank missions for the team for the next two years."

Immediately, the two immortals stopped, realizing the gravity of the threat. Both stood up, then took a few moments to regain their composure and fix their hair. Yakuro was the first to speak, asking, "What shall our training be today, o ever wise Sensei? More hide-and-seek?"

Sasuke paled at this, remembering the last time they had played this so called 'hide and seek'. Apparently the version he had played as a child was simply a very watered down ninja training exercise, as the 'game' they played was positively brutal.

To Yakuro, hide and seek was played as follows: first, you find a non-kage level ninja; then you make that ninja run away from the rest of the group as fast as possible. Giving them a 30 second head start, you proceed to find and maim them as fast as possible. Needless to say, Sasuke was always chosen to run and hide, as when anyone else in the group was chosen the game lasted multiple hours (although Sasuke suspected that Yakuro never really tried). Also needless to say, after every session of this 'training', Sasuke was battered and broken like a rag doll.

Before he had been put onto team Sarutobi, this would have bothered him greatly, and it did at the beginning. Later on, however, as he began to notice the other gennin around him and their progress, he noticed that, although he was the plaything of much higher powers, he was growing at an alarming rate. Before he left the academy, he _might_ have been at low Chunnin level. Now, however, he was easily high Chunnin, possibly very low Jonnin. His teammates and sensei expected him to keep up with them, and although their goals for him were just a tad too high, they weren't condescending or spiteful towards him when he failed, instead being kind and helpful whenever possible. Sasuke had been humbled by this gesture, accepting the fact that although he had believed that no one could help him defeat his brother, this trio of teachers possibly could.

He was, however, most of all amazed with Naruto. He had not known him personally, but had heard his parents discussing his disappearance, and he simply could not believe that the powerhouse that was _training_ him was actually his age. Granted, the boy had been apprenticed to an above Kage level ninja since well before the healthy age to begin training, but his level of power was ridiculous. Sasuke, before meeting Naruto, had thought that his brother was an unrivaled genius; ANBU at the academy age! Now, he knew for certain that it was possible to be stronger or smarter than his brother: the proof was right in front of him!

Sasuke shook his head slightly, realizing that he had drifted off, a much more regular occurrence nowadays. Realizing that the rest of his 'team' was looking to him for input – he was the one they would be training – he shook his head.

"I think that a change would be nice." Sasuke said quietly.

Sarutobi nodded and turned to address Yakuro, "Yakuro, what do you suggest? You are, however much I am loathe to admit it, the better sensei."

Yakuro shook his head, smiling, "No, Sarutobi, you sell yourself short; you are a great sensei, I just have over 5000 years on you." He paused, before continuing, "Now, on to the matter of training. I suggest that Naruto go spar with his clones, as he will not need to be part of this, while I show you and Sasuke some performance enhancing seals that he might find helpful."

All of the team members nodded their assent, Sarutobi and Sasuke bearing curious expressions as well. Naruto quietly headed off to another training field, presumably to do just as Yakuro had suggested. Yakuro walked to the shade of one of many nearby trees, sitting down in the grass beneath it comfortably, unrolling a scroll in front of him and taking a brush and ink out of one of his many coat pockets. As Sarutobi and Sasuke sat down, he began his lesson.

"Now, as both of you know, there are various types of seals, some of which can store chakra of a certain nature, such as those on exploding notes." Pausing, he waited for them to nod, and then continued, "That same principle can be applied to Shinobi as well, although incorporating a seal of this nature into a chakra network is many times more difficult, and is rarely ever completed successfully." Pausing again, he dipped the brush in the ink and sketched a rough drawing of an average ninja.

"Now, I have perfected a method of adding a secondary external chakra circulatory system to the body through the use of chakra conductive ink, linked to seals spaced out on certain points on the body. Although this system remains rigid, it cannot be interrupted, and adds a slight boost to chakra capacity, if sacrificing some control. Additionally, chakra can be stored in each of the originator seals, allowing for a quick refresh during battle, again sacrificing a minimal amount of control. The magic of this sealing structure comes into play, however, through training. Since it is an external system, although linked to the internal system, the rate at which it naturally expels chakra to keep it fresh can be altered. If done slowly, in increments, the body's chakra production will increase as well, eventually attaining phenomenal speeds. This takes time, but, eventually, one could increase their production rate until their entire chakra reservoirs can be filled in the blink of an eye, as I have done. The detriment to this is a higher rate of expulsion of chakra, leading to an increased difficulty in chakra masking. Although, this could almost be seen as a benefit, since, if I didn't stifle my chakral aura constantly, people would have heart attacks while walking by me, simply from the shock of such a rapid influx of sensory material. Additionally, the system is protected against chakra draining or disruption techniques."

He quietly finished, looking to his audience. The two younger Shinobi both stared back at him with incredulous looks. He smiled, then addressed Sarutobi, "I regret to say that you receiving these seals would be nearly impossible, as your aging body cannot handle the strain. Sasuke, however, is a different matter altogether." His look turned slightly piteous as he continued, ignoring pained glances from the older of his 'students', "However, I have found in life that there is a price for power, either in time, pain, or sanity. In this case, the price is pain… lots of pain." He paused, allowing that to soak in, then finished, "I could perform the sealing; now even if you would like, as I have the necessary materials, but I must warn you that it will be more painful than anything you have ever experienced before. I believe that it is somewhere around the magnitude of chopping off your 'dangly bits' and rubbing rock salt into the wound."

Sasuke and Sarutobi both visibly grimaced at this statement, imagining experiencing such pain. Continuing his line of thought, Sasuke began to examine the pros and cons of such a seal, carefully deciding if it was worth it. Normally, he would jump at a chance to obtain such a seal, but Yakuro had made the detriments to such a seal very clear, and he was no longer quite as certain. The benefits certainly outweighed the long term detriments, but he wasn't quite sure if he was ready to endure the pain.

Finally, after much thought on the matter, Sasuke turned to Yakuro, ready to give his answer. His eyes showing unwavering resolve, he stated, "I would like you to perform the seal, now if possible."

Yakuro nodded in return, and then took a scroll out of his cloak. Motioning for Sarutobi to come closer, he unrolled the scroll, which was covered in directions and sealing arrays. "Sarutobi, I have heard that you are an experienced calligraphist. Could you copy these seals onto Sasuke as per the directions with this pot of ink?" he said, handing the Shinobi a pot of ink. Sarutobi nodded, then began to read the scroll, preparing himself for the no doubt arduous task ahead.

Yakuro began to walk to the center of the field, addressing them over his shoulder, "It will take me about an hour to prepare the sealing array on the ground, so take your time."

Finding a flat, grassless spot on the ground, he removed a light blue inkpot from inside his cloak (yet again… so many pockets), and, using the red-tinged ink inside, began to draw a complex, swirling five pointed star pattern onto the ground. As the minutes flew by, the seal slowly expanded outwards, an intricate dance of curved lines of kanji depicting shape inside shape inside shape. As Sarutobi finished his work, he couldn't help but stare. The seal was easily ten feet in diameter, and impossibly more complex than even the Shiki Fuujin! The seal was obviously ridiculously more complicated and difficult than anything that the aging Ninja had ever encountered. To say that Sarutobi was impressed would be an understatement. This man, no matter how much he had wanted to deny it, was a genius! His mind began to drift off into possibilities of what such a valuable asset could give to the village, and a thin line of drool began to ooze out between his lips.

Hearing a voice calling him, he snapped out of his daydream to see Yakuro standing in front of him with a puzzled expression on his face. Noticing that the seal was done, Sarutobi addressed Yakuro dismissively saying, "Sorry, bad habit that comes with old age." Yakuro smiled and nodded understandingly, obviously having experienced the same behavior beforehand.

Nodding to Sasuke, Yakuro scanned the seal one more time, checking for any errors in calligraphy. Finding it to be satisfactory, he turned to inspect Sasuke, who had come to stand beside him. Finding all to be in order on the black haired Ninja, he directed Sasuke to a circle of open space in the center of the seal. Carefully stepping to avoid smudging the impeccable writing, he made his way to another, obviously added, gap in the letters, ready to begin the process.

Receiving a nod from his temporary student, he began to run through a long string of hand seals, doing approximately 5 every second for 40 seconds, totaling over 200 seals. Finishing, he slammed his palms into the ground in front of him, channeling chakra and causing the seal to light up like a Christmas tree. As the light blue glow surrounded Sasuke, his body began involuntarily spasms, and a scream of pain tore through his lips. As the moments wore on, the light did not dim, and Yakuro's grin quickly turned into a frown. Over the sound of the wailing, he shouted to Sarutobi, "Something's wrong! It shouldn't take this long!"

Just as the words escaped his mouth, a red glow began to spread across the seal, starting from Sasuke's body and expanding outwards. As the seal slowly turned red, Sasuke's screams increased in volume, and his writhing became faster and more violent. Just as the two onlookers began to fear for his life, the light died down, and Sasuke ceased moving and fell to the ground with a groan.

Sarutobi rushed over to where Sasuke was lying on the ground, anxiously checking his vital signs. Realizing that the Last Uchiha was fine, he stood up and turned to Yakuro, seeking answers for what could have happened. To his surprise, Yakuro was bent over, panting from obvious exertion. Noticing that Sarutobi was looking at him, he explained, "That took much more Chakra than it should have."

"How much more?" questioned Sarutobi, concerned.

"It should have taken about a Chunnin's worth of chakra, which I would have barely felt. That sealing took almost all of my chakra, which is probably more than all of the S-classed ninja in the Elemental Nations have combined."

Sarutobi widened his eyes in wonder. Not only did Yakuro have that much Chakra, but that sealing had take almost all of it! The question now wasn't what the sealing had done, but rather what it _hadn't_. With all of that chakra being infused, it could have practically made a physical clone of the boy! He voiced his opinion to Yakuro, who nodded in agreement and walked over to inspect the passed-out Ninja.

Seeing no obvious changes, Yakuro began the most in-depth form of physical scanning he could… the poke-groan test. As he began randomly poking the boy, listening intently to the groans he was making, Sarutobi began checking the seal for any obvious mistakes. Seeing none, he returned to where Yakuro was kneeling, waiting for his companion to finish his bodily examination.

With a grunt, Yakuro stood up, a confused expression on his face. "He seems to be acting normal. The sealing has been completed perfectly, as far as I can tell…" He trailed off, obviously in thought. His eyes widened a moment later, as if he had thought of something horrific. Rushing over to a spot on the ground, he began hurriedly reading kanji off of the ground, trying to find confirmation for a wild theory. With an amazed cry, he looked up from the ground, exclaiming, "Of course!"

Rushing back to Sasuke, he began pacing, thoughts obviously racing though his brain at lightning speed. "It appears," he thought out loud, partially to Sarutobi, "that the clause I placed in the sealing array to allow it to take on the characteristics of the chakra system it was being bound to has had side-effects. I did not count on this, so I did not add in an inhibitor clause, but Sasuke's sharingan awoke during the sealing due to the extreme pain experienced, as his brain classifies such pain as a near-death experience. The aforementioned clause caused the array to take on the superficial characteristics of the sharingan eye. The seal-system should function normally, but will have a few unintended side effects. Smaller side effects should include increased sensory ability, and the ability to use the sharingan without inducing insanity or blindness, which would be a boon by itself. The true boon lies in the fact that the sharingan has the inherent ability to absorb chakra during activation to be used as fuel. This characteristic should have been mimicked by the seal-system, allowing him to absorb naturally released chakra from his surroundings to power his sharingan eye constantly. This ability should also be able to drain chakra from objects using physical contact, although it will only be able to drain as much chakra as there is space in the system, or in Sasuke's natural system. In simpler terms, he will be a chakra leech."

"That's mighty impressive, Sensei." Naruto called from a few yards away, walking towards them. Both Shinobi turned in surprise, dropping into battle stances, but then loosening back up as they realized who had spoken.

"Naruto. When did you return?" asked Yakuro suspiciously.

"When the light show started. I knew that wasn't what was supposed to happen, so I walked back over to see what was up." Said Naruto explanatorily.

Yakuro nodded, obviously satisfied with the answer. Hearing a groan from the ground, he turned, seeing that Sasuke had finally come to.

"What happened?" he said groggily, "I feel like I got hit with a sack of bricks." Noticing all three of the Shinobi weren't answering his question, rather instead staring at him intently. "What?" he asked, confused.

"Sasuke," Yakuro asked gently, "Do you feel… different?"

"Yeah, actually. Everything seems clearer and easier to see, and I feel like I'm reacting to little things faster than before." He said, not seeing the point.

"Ummm… Sasuke," Naruto said nervously, "There's been an accident with the sealing…"

"Oh god!" said Sasuke, freaking out, "Am I deformed… did it leave scars… can I not mold chakra… will it ruin my Shinobi career?!?!?!"

"No, no, nothing like that," Yakuro said with a chuckle.

"How can you be laughing?!?!" interjected Sasuke, "I've been RUINED!!"

Yakuro simply chuckled harder, saying, "Actually, quite the opposite has happened. Your sharingan has awoken, and fused with the seal-system…"

As he explained what had happened, why it had happened, and what the side-effects were, Sasuke's eyes lit up, obviously excited. To think, he had a one of a kind Sharingan! One with no ill side effects, and one that would likely never be replicated. He would be the stuff of legends! The re-builder of the Uchiha clan, and the wielder of the Perfect Sharingan! As Yakuro concluded, his daydreaming came to an abrupt halt.

"I believe," Yakuro said seriously, "That with much time, you could become a great, S-classed Shinobi, the likes of which has never before been seen in the Uchiha clan. Just think, the man who all Shinobi fear to face! The Ninja who can drain you dry with a single touch! Taijutsu would be completely useless, as no one could ever touch you! With enough speed, you could take down entire armies, all with simple touches to the arm!" He paused, taking a breath, "Of course, this will all take extensive training, but with enough of it, you could easily become an S-ranked Shinobi like us."

As Sasuke's eyes widened, Sarutobi interjected into the monologue, obviously having remembered something. Addressing the whole group, he cleared his throat, saying, "I have procured our first mission as the Strike Team. I understand it has been slow in coming, but try to understand that I have spent the whole time being held up by the council as they try to find a loophole in the law set by the Shodaime. I believe they wish to re-exert control over 'their Uchiha'." Turning to Sasuke in particular, he said, "As of now, we all have unparalleled power as Shinobi. I didn't realize how powerful this position was until now, but now it truly shocks me. Being separate entities, we can choose our missions, our pay (within reason), our rank, if so desired, and if we stay in the village or not. In fact, we could just say we were going on an indefinite undercover mission and act exactly like missing-nin, without repercussions and while getting paid."

Yakuro smiled smugly, saying, "That's exactly what we planned. Now, not to sound hasty, but what is our mission?"

Sarutobi smiled, saying, "Actually, we have two. First, we will be following a bridge-builder and a hired gennin team to Wave country. We have reason to suspect that the shipping giant Gato Corporation has been dipping into foul play, and is siphoning money off of the economy of wave country. We are to seize its assets for the betterment of the Shinobi Academy here, as they are running low on funding. Additionally, we are to find and ally with, possibly through force, Mochmi Zabuza, who we have reason to believe is in his employment. Zabuza recently attempted to overthrow the government of Mist Country, which is currently our enemy, even if in shambles. If we give him surreptitious funding and support, we should be able to take down the country from the inside, and remake it into a strong ally." He paused, allowing them time to soak in the information and to take a breather.

Continuing, he said, "The second task which we have is a slightly more entertaining one. I will be entering you into the Chunnin Exams as a gennin team. You will use this exam as a chance to be promoted. Granted, we could always self-promote, but legitimate promotions step on less toes. Additionally, you will be entered to make Konoha look really good, which is also really important. Finally, you will be entered for another reason. Apparently, Orochimaru of the Sannin has caught wind of this group, probably through a network of spies he set up before he left. Jiraya of the Sannin, his teammate, who is currently out maintaining his and Konoha's spy networks, has caught wind of some small hints, and we have decided that, although we cannot be certain, he is interested at something during these exams. We have reason to believe that he might invade, but we are in the dark about anything else. Knowing my former student, he has come here for a subject for his experiments, either a Bakyuugan or Sharingan user. He might have also come here out of revenge, in order to kill me, his former sensei, and the man who exposed his evil to the world. Little does he know that we will be ready for him. Sadly, we cannot ready the whole village without tipping our hands, but since this team probably has the firepower of a whole village combined, we should serve as protection just fine." He finished abruptly, taking depth breaths, so much talking obviously slightly hard on his older lungs.

Having caught his breath, he shook his head, then continued, "Sorry, I rambled a bit there. Anyway… due to the nature of our assignment, it is a little impromptu, we have to leave today." He looked up at the sky, judging the time from the placement of the sun. Figuring the time, he concluded, "Team eight, consisting of Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba with Yuuhi Kurenai as their Jonnin Sensei, will be arriving in wave country later today. We need to intercept them just before they arrive to allow us to observe Zabuza in action and trail him, also giving us time to intervene if thing get out of hand. By my estimates, we should meet at the front gate in about half an hour."

He nodded at this, as his teammates face-faulted, realizing that they had almost no time to get ready. Looking amongst one another, they all acknowledged that they were done talking, and then dashed off to their respective living quarters to prepare.

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One hour later, they set off from the main gate, a simple wave from the Former Hokage being the only clearance they needed. Dashing down the path, they all silently reflected on what had happened the past few weeks: training session after training session for Sasuke, and how it had changed them, mainly Sasuke.

Wearing his usual getup of a black shirt and black pants with Shinobi sandals, Sasuke dashed through the shadows of the trees, quietly pondering his team, and wondering what their first mission would be like. Gods knows that he was anxious; this was a B-rank destruction/diplomatic/raiding mission! Trying to distract himself from the difficult task ahead, he looked at his other teammates, taking in there appearances for the mission.

The former Sandaime was wearing very normal clothing… by his standards. He was clothed in a full body robe that looked strangely like the Hokage robe, except it was black instead of white, and had an overly large red sash around the waist. Concealed to all but the trained eye, kunai holsters rested on each of his wrists, and senbon holders were strapped to his thighs. Had he not seen the Hokage practicing with it, Sasuke would have never guessed that a Katana was concealed within his robe, nor would he have guessed that the man was an expert swordsman.

Naruto was next on the scale of strange. He had left his long, unruly yellow hair out, but had tucked the bangs that hung over his eyes into his headband. He was wearing black pants and a black undershirt with a large black battle-coat covering it, which was covered in swirling orange designs and seals, most of which looked completely foreign to the Uchiha. Strapped to his back were two katanas, each one with gems inlayed into the hilts in various seals, most likely to keep them sharp and such. His hands sported fine plate metal gloves with the tips of the fingers uncovered to allow for channeling and sealing. On his feet were regular Shinobi sandals, with the bottoms covered in plate metal for added protection and a really nice kick. No kunai holsters were obvious on the boy anywhere, and Sasuke wondered if Naruto even used them, as he had never seen them being used before.

Yakuro was by no doubt the weirdest of the three other Shinobi. He had a black undershirt with sleeves and black spandex pants on, which covered his body completely but were slightly too form revealing, making many of the women (and some of the men) they darted past on the road have nosebleeds. On top of that, he had a strong, meticulously constructed waist-length jacket made of woven metal thread. He had a set of chain mail leg warmers, obviously to protect his legs. On top of all of this, he wore a long jacket with a high collar with swirling red and black designs covering it in a mesmerizing way, causing him to inexplicably melt into the shadows. When it flared open slightly, Sasuke could see a hint of many pockets lining the insides. Normally he was armed to the teeth, however today he was simply carrying his ridiculously long sword, most likely planning to win over Zabuza's loyalty through a comparison of skill.

The road became rougher, signifying their distance from Konoha, and Sasuke was forced to return his thoughts to the road. They were running at breakneck speed to catch up to the other gennin team, and Sasuke was having trouble keeping up. He had known that his teammates were much stronger than him from his 'training', and in his mind this just re-affirmed the fact. As the landscape sped by in a blur, Sasuke began to focus more on Naruto, marveling at the fact that his peer was so much stronger than him. To Sasuke, this was breakneck pace, but it looked as if Naruto were simply jogging!

The more Sasuke thought about the situation, the more he realized that this Yakuro man was his ticket to power. He had realized the moment he had first seen the Ninja that Yakuro was different from the rest. Not only did his trick with the Dojutsu, which he still had no explanation for, show how experienced he was, but when Sasuke looked into the man's eyes, he saw a sense of loneliness, of an eternity spent longing for companionship, and he was reminded of himself, in a more extreme version. This man had been through true tragedy, and he knew that they could learn much from each other. Ok, so maybe Yakuro couldn't learn anything from him, but at least they could have each other's companionship, right?

This threw Sasuke into a depression, as he realized that he had nothing to truly offer this man who had come with everything he needed. He had a firm belief that all people had a price, and all people needed payment of some kind. When he thought about what he could give to the afro-haired Ninja, he drew a blank. There was simply nothing he could give Yakuro, and Yakuro was obviously the strongest Shinobi to ever grace the walls of Konoha, judging from the Sandaime's reactions to his actions. There was still no doubt that Yakuro would give him what he needed, the only question was how to get it.

Meanwhile, Yakuro was also deep in thought, but obviously not about the same topic. No, Yakuro was in thought about something much more dangerous: The Akatsuki. He had been keeping tabs on them through his spy network, which was second to none, as he had sleeper agents that had been implanted in places generations ago, who simply gave information to a bird who arrived every week without knowing or questioning its purpose. No, Yakuro had known the exact aims of the Akatsuki from day one, and he was troubled by a recent occurrence. It appears, or so his network told him, that the Akatsuki were already on the move. He had received information years ago hinting to the idea that they would not act for quite a while, but he had suspicions and hinting reports that they had also caught wind of Orochimaru's plans, and were going to kill the snake and intercept Sabuku no Gaara and extract his demon during the Chunnin Exams.

This was an extremely troubling prospect; though he knew that he could easily deal with them, all at once if he wanted to, he also needed to protect Sasuke from Orochimaru's plans, which by no doubt settled on the boy, despite what Sarutobi was being led to believe. He might be able to multi-task and pull it off, but both of the boys in question were in delicate mental states, and an extreme display of power would cause them both to go insane. He would have to be careful, as it was going to be difficult.

Naruto's thoughts were a world away from his two teammates, as he debated with the Kyuubi as to which Ramen flavor was the best. He had long ago learned that he could talk to his prisoner, and had begun to do so almost immediately after, as per instructions from his teacher. At first, it had acted quite brusque and demon-like, brushing him off with growls and short, demeaning statements. He had expressed this to Yakuro, who had responded with a smile, explaining that, given enough time, the demon would realize that their conversations were an outlet for its boredom, and would begin to converse. Although it was still short, and sometimes made rude, demeaning, or snide comments, Kyuubi had warmed up, just as Yakuro had said it would, and now gave him great advice and helped him survive his boredom during times like this.

He had asked the Kyuubi what his favorite flavor of ramen was, and the Kyuubi had responded snidely that it was human heart flavor. Naruto responded, much to the fox's surprise by stating that he had never had that flavor, but he was certain that Miso was better. Thus ensued a long debate on the merits of Human Heart Flavored Ramen, ending with Naruto stating that he was curious as to what it tasted like, and that he would save the heart of his next sacrifice to Jashin to create some.

As these thoughts concluded, the team arrived at the shoreline bordering wave country, with a rowboat, most likely containing Team 8 and their charge, slowly heading towards the land barely visible on the other side of the bay. For one moment, the team turned their attention to the bridge barely visible through the mist, all clearly impressed by the engineering genius that it must have taken to build the bridge, gaining surprising respect for the bridge builder that the gennin team was guarding.

Deciding that standing around was going to get them no closer to their objective, Sarutobi stepped onto the water, motioning for the team to follow. Luckily for them, Sarutobi had planned for occasions such as these, and had taught Sasuke the art of water walking many weeks ago. As the team followed, he managed to detect two expertly hidden chakra signatures, which he was certain only close to Kage level ninja could detect. Glancing back, he gained two surreptitious nods from Yakuro and Naruto, meaning that they had sensed it too. Glancing at Sasuke, he was surprised to notice that the Ninja was uneasy; it appeared that his sessions of run away from the S-classed ninja were paying off, as he obviously felt something.

The three Ninja advanced cautiously, all masking their presence perfectly, Sasuke included (hide-and-seek anyone?). As they neared the Islands of wave country, a sudden spike of chakra alerted them to a problem, and when they heard the shout of, "GET DOWN!" they rushed to the sound.

Arriving near the battle, they masked their presences even more tightly; concerned that close proximity could give them away. Yakuro, thinking that the Hyuuga on the team might have her Bakyuugan active, cloaked them in a concealment genjutsu designed to block the all-seeing gaze of the white eye. Secure in their concealment, the team crept forward, focused on the fight going on in front of them, which was by all accounts slightly boring.

Zabuza, thinking that he was cloaked by his mist, crept around the team, assured in his safety. Unbeknownst to him, Hinata had surreptitiously activated her eyes, and had told her teacher where the missing-nin was, allowing the genjutsu expert to cast a multi-layered web of complicated genjutsu around their tormenter. His senses effectively blocked, the Jonnin simply walked up to him, prepared to finish him off.

Unsurprisingly, to the spectators at least, senbon sunk into his neck a moment before Kurenai was to kill him, making her believe that he was dead. As the 'Hunter-nin' jumped down from the tree near them, Sarutobi chuckled. It was such a simple trick, and any more experienced Jonnin, at least one who had been interested in becoming a hunter-nin, would have seen through it. Unluckily for Team 8, Kurenai did not see through the show, instead allowing her opponent to be carted off, none the wiser to the fact that he actually was alive.

Sasuke stared at the match intently, feeling that he could learn something important from this encounter, as it appeared that Yakuro was watching it intently, and gesturing for him to do so as well. As it progressed, he couldn't help but feel that he was witnessing a routine fault that many experienced shinobi fell prey to. It appeared that Zabuza, overconfident in his ability to win, had underestimated his opponents, allowing them to incapacitate him quite easily. Additionally, it appeared that he relied too heavily on that one technique for success, and, when confronted with a counter, was left flat footed. He mentally made sure to remember to have more than one trick up his sleeves at all times, and to never underestimate his opponents.

Team Seven waited patiently as the other team led their charge to his house, then proceeded on with their mission. Apparently the 'hunter-nin' that they were tailing was quite fast and stealthy, as it had quite the lead on them, and Yakuro, who had designated himself as the tracker, was surprised by the difficulty he was having following the trail left at the same pace.

As the tree branches whipped by their faces, the forest slowly grew gloomier and more oppressive. Here and there were scattered signs of activity from non-ninja humans, which lead the team to guess that they were headed to Gato's hideout. Soon, the dense woods thinned out again, and a discernible footpath could be distinguished, allowing the team to increase their pace. At this much faster speed, they arrived at Gato's hideout quite quickly.

The hideout was nothing like any of them expected. Instead of being a grandiose mansion, or possibly a castle, it was a slipshod jumble of treehouses connected together and added on to, most likely as space was needed. The whole thing was marginally impressive in the fact that it didn't fall out of the trees it clung to, but it was otherwise quite shabby looking. From the worn footpaths leading to its entrances, it was obvious that this hideout was a hive of activity, most likely under the cover of darkness. At this point, however, it was as silent as a ghost town, save one person standing near one of the entrances, guarding the body next to it possessively.

As they dropped down into the clearing, their prey spoke up, acting slightly smug from what it perceived to be it catching its pursuers. "Ah, so Konoha has sent more shinobi to try and test us," called the feminine voice, in a light and calm, but paradoxically mocking tone, "If you were trying to be sneaky, you are all quite pitiful. I knew that you were trailing me almost as soon as we left the battle." With that, she, or so the team thought, dropped into a basic fighting stance, obviously ready to do battle with them.

Sasuke made a motion to answer the call, but Yakuro held him back with an arm. A quick glance was all that was needed, and Sasuke backed down as Yakuro stepped forward. In an answer to the shinobi, he dropped into a strange stance, his bent legs too close together and his hands slightly behind his body, then called, "For your information, we were making no effort to hide ourselves."

Frowning at the subtle jab, the unknown shinobi rushed in, zigzagging lightly to avoid any incoming punches. Yakuro however, to the astonishment of everyone, simply stood there as the other shinobi neared, not shifting his stance at all. As the nin came in with a simple punch to his sternum, his team held a baited breath, expecting him to react at the last second. He did not react at all, and the punch hit him full force. As the fist connected, however, he loosened his knees, then used the momentum of the punch to execute a handspring, kicking the surprised nin under the jaw, sending her flying.

She shifted her momentum in midair, landing lightly on the balls of her feet, then charged back in with a burst of speed. As she began a volley of punches, Yakuro clasped his hands behind his back, weaving and ducking madly to avoid being hit. Seeing that he appeared to be in a rhythm, the hunter-nin jammed her knee towards his stomach at a sharp angle, leaving him no room to dodge, expecting to catch him off guard.

To her surprise, Yakuro responded by folding his body around her knee and grabbing her upper thigh. With a slight grunt, he bent backwards, flinging the shinobi over his shoulder. She flipped over, landing on the ground lightly, then whirled around to see… an empty clearing.

Closing her eyes, she stretched out her senses, searching for her opponent. Feeling no disturbances in the air other than small animals, and finding no chakra signature, she began checking for signs of a genjutsu. Darting her eyes around the clearing, she looked for any sign of something out of place. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a bright flash of color. Focusing on it, she was surprised to see a simple orange flower. She stared intently at the flower, willing herself to notice the discrepancy, then disrupted her chakra flow, sighing in relief as the genjutsu melted around her. Looking down, she noticed strange markings in ink on the ground around her. With a start, she realized that the genjutsu was a simple diversion in order to complete the technique.

Yakuro smiled, realizing that his trap was successful. As the mysterious ninja tried to jump away, he activated the seal. Glowing brightly, the markings halted her upward motion, stopping her with one foot off the ground. The clearing was silent for a moment, everyone holding their breath to see if it was over. Yakuro stood with his arms crossed, as if taunting the mysterious Shinobi to try and break the seal. With a slight tremor, ice burst from the ground, rupturing the seal and freeing the Shinobi from her prison, allowing her to drop her foot down onto the bed of ice below her.

Running through a string of handseals, she jumped towards Yakuro, a dome of ice mirrors rising out of the ground around them. Yakuro looked around, frowning at his prison.

"A Hyouton user," he said, marveling at his luck, "It's been a long time since I've seen one. What luck!"

Frowning in turn at his words, the 'hunter-nin' faded into the mirror behind her, her face appearing on all of them. A moment of stillness passed, both Shinobi staring at each other impassively. In the blink of an eye, both Shinobi disappeared into flurries of motion. All through the dome, small ice senbon flew, trying to disable the ninja trapped within. Yakuro, however, was considerably faster than the nin, even with the speed boost the technique gave. He reached out into the air, grabbing a handful of senbon out of the air and slipping one between each finger. His hands became a blur of motion, and the soft and rapid clink of senbon meeting echoed throughout the forest.

After an approximately thirty second barrage, the nin stopped the attack, its image in the mirrors panting from exertion. In the middle of the circle, Yakuro stood calmly and steadily, looking as if he hadn't even been fighting. Shifting his weight back slightly, Yakuro's swept his eyes over the dome of ice, assessing the mysterious technique. With a smile, he jumped at one of the mirrors, punching it with his left fist. To his opponent's chagrin, wide cracks appeared throughout the mirror, which had been formed to easily withstand 5 tons of force.

Suddenly more wary of her target, the Shinobi once again began throwing senbon, slightly faster this time. Yakuro quirked an eyebrow, then once again began dodging the projectiles, avoiding all of them with ease. As the barrage continued, the number of senbon gradually decreased, the nin obviously running out of energy. As quickly as it started, the onslaught ended, leaving the nin in the mirrors panting. Yakuro, however, was still standing in the center of the dome, not even slightly out of breath.

"That's a great technique you have there." He said with a smile. "It obviously would allow you to defeat someone considerably stronger than you, as long as the gap in skill was not too great. Sadly, however, you have one major flaw that you seem to have forgotten."

Proclaiming this, he strode up to the nearest mirror and plunged his hand in, his smile growing infinitely wider. "You didn't count on fighting another ice master."

And with that, the dome shattered, small shards of ice raining down on the battlefield. The air slowly cleared, revealing Yakuro standing over the panting Shinobi, smiling as calmly as ever, the battle obviously over.


	4. 321 BOOM

**Praise Be to Jashin**

Chapter 4: What's the amplitude of the wave? Hmmm…

**Author's Note:**

I'm back, I'm back, I'm ready for attack!

Sorry this is so short. I figured you probably wanted something to hold you over. My inspiration has kind of died. It's still there, just about 5 chapters ahead of where I am right now. Gaah!

Thanks to all the people putting me on their story alerts. It warms my heart, it really does. I would like to request that if you can take the time to do so, at least leave a small note about why you like the story. I would really appreciate it.

Just letting you know, but Haku is really trusting because, unlike normal interrogations, there is absolutely no hostility from her captor. It's the same reason that she's nice to Naruto in cannon. She knew who he was, but he didn't seem hostile, so she decided to talk to him. Plus, what better source of information than an unsuspecting child?

Haku came back to consciousness slowly, her bearings completely lost. The last thing she could remember was extracting Zabuza from the fight. She began pondering: 'Blackouts in memory are generally indicative of forced unconsciousness, most probably from overexertion. Proper mental stimulus should help revive the memory, as well as grant proper lucidity of thought.'

With that, her mind began to wander… 'Hmmm… Zabuza was injured… that rarely happens, since he has his Zanbatou and ungodly strength to aide him. He was defeated by his general weakness, a Genjutsu mistress, who was able to detect him through the mist with the aid of a Hyuuga. Perhaps I am under a genjutsu? …No that would not be possible, I could just use my ice mirrors to escape, since strong genjutsu require direct eye contact to initiate. Wait… Ice mirrors…'

In a rush, her memory returned, and she began struggling. 'I have to protect Zabuza…' To her chagrin, she had been bound at the wrists and ankles, using ANBU grade detention knots, which were impossible to work undone, and actually tightened as the detainee struggled further. Trying to open her eyes, she realized that her face was covered with a blindfold, she could feel a paper seal attatched to her stomach, which appeared to be leeching her chakra, leaving her with barely enough to survive.

"You are perfectly safe," a voice called out from somewhere to her left. "We are in your personal quarters in Gato's hideout. Not hidden much if you ask me." A small chuckle punctuated the statement, and a long pause insued.

Stuttering slightly from nervousness, Haku interjected, "Wh-what do you want?"

"Ah, my little shinobi friend, that is why you are here. I mean you no harm, but I want some information." he said, his voice still friendly.

"I will try to answer you to the best of my ability," responded Haku, sensing no KI or negative emotions from the other shinobi.

"Good!" he said, enthusiastically. "Then I might as well take off your blindfold."

There was a momentary shuffling of her captor moving across the room, then, with a few quick tugs, her blindfold fell loose. She blinked a few times, adjusting her eyes to the sudden influx of light, then took in her surroundings.

She was most definitely in her borrowed room, that was obvious. Small, tidy, spartan, it suited her perfectly. In the corner opposite her bed were a few boxes, holding her collection of stolen Hyouton scrolls and her weapons of choice, senbon. However, something had been added that was not previously there. In the center of her room sat a complex piece of twisted metal that came out into about 18 different points, looking vaguely like a star. In the center, in a hollow, was a small scroll covered in complex sealing matrices. She could only guess as to what it did, and she had a feeling her captor wouldn't tell her if she asked. Glancing back up, she studied her captor up close.

It was the same shinobi who had so easily bested her, looking at her with the same infuriating smile. He had taken off his coat and metal mesh, and was now wearing only a slightly tight undershirt and a waaay to tight pair of spandex pants. Pants that were, in fact, so tight that she found herself unconsciously staring, and had to force herself to look away. Although she couldn't see this earlier, he was fairly young, around 18 probably, which seemed miraculous in itself, as he seemed ridiculously strong. The exposed skin on his body was covered in seals, which glowed a strange reddish color, giving him an ethereal look.

Clearing his throat to get her attention, he began his 'interrogation'. "What is your name?"

"Haku."

"You are of the Hyouton clan. I assume that you were saved from the purges by your master?" Haku nodded. "That makes sense." he said, now deep in thought. He glanced at her, and questioned, "How old are you?"

"About 14" she replied monotonously.

"Really?" he said in surprise. "Either Zabuza is a great teacher, or you are an exceptional shinobi."

Haku's cheeks flushed slightly at the comment. "Thank you. I try my best to be useful."

"Ah" said Yakuro with a smile. After a slight pause, his face turned more serious, "In that case, I need your help. I have information that tells me that Gato is prepared to betray you. He is readying a small bandit army, no doubt in hopes of taking you out. Strangely enough, paying the bandits will cost less than paying you."

Haku's eyes widened, "Yes, I have suspected that he was planning something for a while now. I assume this device on the floor will aid us in leaving?"

Yakuro's mile grew slightly wider, and he nodded warmly, " Yes. This device drains variable amounts of chakra from everyone in a certain radius, in this case one mile. The device is one time use, and requires direct contact to activate, and so is normally not very practical. However, I will be using this device to drop all non-shinobi in the base from chakra exhaustion, which does not require much drain. Sadly, this device is also incapable of killing people, as the chakra system shuts down when in chakra exhaustion, preventing people form unconsciously killing themselves. This will give us a considerable amount of time to escape. I have a hideout elsewhere in wave, and we can take Zabuza there to be healed."

Haku nodded, then looked up with determination in her eyes. "Simply allow me to pack, and we will be on our way."

A few minutes of awkward positions and sealing things into scrolls later, the duo was ready to leave. "I will go collect Zabuza from his room," Yakuro stated, "which will give you time to recuperate, When I return, we will leave." And with that, he dashed out of the room, his newly donned cloak allowing him to melt into the shadows. He returned some minutes later, the unconscious form of her master in his arms.

"I need you to activate it" he said bluntly. " I fear that I would overload it, as I have much too much chakra to give it so little."

Realization swept across Haku's face at this statement. "You planned this from the beginning." She said, mistrust in her voice, "you didn't drain my chakra because you were afraid of me escaping; you simply wanted me to have enough control for this delicate task."

He nodded a guilty nod, then hurriedly asked, " Could we please activate it? We really need to get going before we are discovered."

She glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. "Pray tell, how do you do such a thing?"

"Oh, yeah." he said, slightly sheepishly, "Ummm... dog, rat, boar, horse, ram. Then channel the desired amount of chakra into the device."

She quickly followed his instructions, and the device lit up with a greenish glow, a small buzzing sound heard from within. It steadily grew louder and brighter, until the glow was blinding and the buzz was deafening. After about a minute of torture, the device let out thousands of small green 'bolts', which shot unerringly towards the chakra coils of everyone within a mile radius, drawing some of their chakra back into the machine. Its work completed, the noise and light from the machine died, and it quickly imploded in on itself, turning into a solid, misshapen hunk of iron.

Regaining their senses, the pair quickly got up and dashed away, headed for Yakuro's safehouse on the other side of the island. In their wake, a small piece of paper was left as a note, saying simply, "Consider our contract void."


	5. Meetings and other things

**Praise Be to Jashin**

Chapter 5: Who are you again?

**Disclaimer: **Obvious statement is obvious.

Naruto sat on the edge of his "bed", counting the number of leaks in the ceiling of their safe house. Really, there were no beds, only some wooden frames with some sheets strung across them tautly, but they worked fine. Like everything else in the impoverished country of wave, their hideout was a dump.

Rich people like Gato got their money from somewhere, as there is only so much money to go around. In this case, he simply sucked it from anyone who happened to be naive enough to let him get close. The greedy little man had hit a veritable gold mine in the land of the waves, as it had no ninja to enforce laws mandating worker benefits. As such, he could maintain an economic stranglehold on the country, taking as much money as he possibly could whenever he wanted to. With no money left for the people, wave was slowly dying.

That was why they were there in the first place, wave needed their help. Naruto wasn't sure, but he had a feeling that, after this was all over, wave was going to ask to become a vassal state of the land of fire. However, there had been a hidden village there at one point, and it was obvious that, given enough time and money, the country could once again support a village. The only other country remotely capable of this would be snow, but a fierce dictatorship there prevented that from happening. Naruto was interested in possibly founding a village sometime in the future, possibly after the current generation had died, and he wanted wave to be a free country at that point in time, as it would prevent many unnecessary diplomatic negotiations. Oh well… that was something he needed to talk with Yakuro about.

Speaking of Yakuro, where was that cheery immortal? He had told them he was leaving to interrogate the prisoner in a friendly setting, but he most definitely should have returned by then. Perhaps he was engaged in a show of power? Such things were not uncommon ways of changing the allegiances of nuke-nin. Yakuro was certainly eccentric enough to attempt something, so that was likely the case. Knowing Yakuro, their young female hostage was probably wrapped around his finger by now.

Naruto shook his head, then resumed his examination of the ceiling. He had no idea how his sensei managed to interrogate hostages so quickly. There was simply something about the way he talked that made people want to trust him. He just seemed to radiate a feeling of general contentment that permeated a room. Naruto had growing suspicions that he used pheromones to accomplish this, but he wasn't sure Whatever his sensei did, it seemed to work anywhere, with anyone. Well, that is, except when he went on bloody killing sprees, since people were typically dead before they realized he was there. Yes, even after studying under him for almost a decade Naruto knew relatively little about his sensei, who had once comically proclaimed that he refused to talk to anyone under the age of 500.

Just as Naruto began chuckling, the door of the old warehouse they were in slid open, squeaking on its rusty hinges. Peaking around a stack of long empty boxes, Naruto's hand traveled to his kunai pouch slowly, ready to protect him from assailants. To his immense relief, it was Yakuro, not some unknown assailant, standing in the doorway. He seemed to have been running for quite some time, as his hair was slightly more wild than normal. In his arms was the massive form of Momochi Zabuza draped in his arms, with the nuke-nin's massive sword sheathed on his back. Next to him stood Zabuza's young accomplice, who looked completely out of breath. It seemed as though Yakuro had traveled fast, as so to keep up the charade that they could not easily defeat Gato's army. He still didn't see the point in such a venture, but who was he to question someone with so much more experience?

"Anyone home?" Yakuro sang into the empty building.

Sensing his cue, Naruto stepped out from behind the boxes, waving merrily with a smile on his face.

"Glad you made it" he said enthusiastically.

"Yes," said the unnamed apprentice, "so am I."

Naruto frowned at this. She seemed very shy and introverted, as if she had grown up with limited human contact. Furthermore she seemed mournful, and, dare he say it, scared, most probably because her sensei was not there to help her. How strange that one so powerful was so insecure…

Naruto shook his head, then replied, "Don't mind me." He jerked his thumb towards Yakuro, "He's just my sensei. Been teaching me for the past decade."

The unknown Shinobi frowned, "But he can't be a day over 25, which means he started teaching you at 15!"

At this, both immortals burst out laughing, pent up stress setting them off like firecrackers. It took a good few minutes for them to calm down enough to talk coherently, but once they did, Yakuro interrupted, completely ignoring Haku's puzzled face.

"Naruto, meet Haku. She is apprenticed to Zabuza, and has agreed to help us fight Gato. As she is his apprentice, I believe that she can sufficiently vouch for his actions."

He paused for a moment, seeming worried, then continued, "Sadly, thing are moving much faster than I expected."

Naruto's ever-present smile turned downwards. "I take it that Gato knows of our presence?"

Yakuro nodded solemnly, responding, "There were simply too many bandits at his base. It wouldn't be economical to hire that much help on a daily basis. I sent Sarutobi and Sasuke out to collect information on what happened. It appears that we have a leak in our intelligence. I believe that we might have been set up."

Naruto nodded in response, "Good training for Sasuke." He paused, then asked furtively, "You believe that he wants to kill us, thereby sending a message to all other villages." Yakuro nodded at this, and Naruto continued, "So, then we need to prepare. He will probably be pulling out all of the stops, as he probably expects us to simply try to guard the completion of the bridge. If we decree the seizure edict at the final confrontation, then we can keep some of the bandits alive and use them as witnesses to legalize it."

Yakuro smiled, "My thoughts exactly. You really are growing into a fine Shinobi, Naruto." Naruto beamed at that, "But my main concern in all of this is Sasuke. He is more of a ninja versus ninja fighter. He'd get swamped in the kind of free for all a bandit army incites. We need to train him, and fast."

Naruto nodded, "Agreed. He needs some help, as his new seals seem to be throwing off his chakra manipulation ability."

Yakuro smiled, then turned to Haku, nodding his head for her to follow him. The silent missing-nin trailed along after him as he bounded off into the darkness of the rest of the warehouse. Sadly, there were only a few lightbulbs in the whole building, but the team managed to make due.

Naruto smiled, then went back to his "bedroom" to continue thinking. It had been decided that he would be in charge of Sasuke's training at this point, so he had to think up a good regimen before the Shinobi got back. Perhaps a bit of shadow-clone-aided chakra manipulation exercises would be in order? Sasuke had about enough chakra to pull off 5 clones and still be able to work on other things. But Sasuke needed attacks that could take out multiple enemies at once, of which his current arsenal was limited. Perhaps the best way to achieve this would be to teach him swordsmanship. Hmm….

On the other side of the building, Yakuro, with the aid of Haku, was beginning to work on reviving Zabuza. As the bandages around his torso slowly came unwound, his quickly healing wound came into view. Haku visibly winced at the sight, as it looked quite painful. Yakuro, however, seemed completely unperturbed.

Turning to the apprentice, Yakuro asked, "You know the mixture for a good healing paste, correct?" Haku nodded at this. "Then could you make me some? I'm going to heal your master through a jutsu, but the skin will be slightly weak there, and a herbal paste will help strengthen it quickly."

Her eyes widening slightly at the revelation that her companion was a medic, she nodded, then jumped to the catwalk above and exited through the high window. Watching her leave carefully, completely certain the she would return to help her master, Yakuro set to his task. With a look of determination, his hands flew through handseals for a good thirty seconds, then began to glow green with the telltale sings of a medical jutsu. Ever so carefully, Yakuro brought his hands to the wound, which began to sizzle and pop as it was disinfected. After a good thirty seconds, the gash began to creep shut, new skin and flesh forming where old had been lost. Yakuro's brow furrowed in deeper concentration, as his task became harder and harder.

After five long minutes of grunting and straining, the swordsman was completely healed, and Yakuro flopped back with a sigh. Medical jutsu were not his forte at all. He simply had too much chakra to perform them easily, as he could overload the delicate balance of healing the justu brought on if he channeled too much chakra. Still, the jutsu had been completed correctly, and now he could rest, content in the fact that he wouldn't be disturbed for at least another hour.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Naruto awoke to the tandem sounds of loud coughing and a door squealing on its hinges. He looked down at his lap, where his latest invention, what he had dubbed an exploding seal on steroids, lay half finished. Apparently his acute ADD, a problem that Yakuro had been struggling for years to combat, had caught up to him again.

He mentally praised his sensei for what seemed to be the millionth time. The man was a complete genius in regard to mental facilities. He had put Naruto on a strict mental training regimen at the age of 6, directly after realizing that his attention span was the root of his inability to learn properly. Thankfully, the results paid off, and he had developed into 'a fine shinobi', as Yakuro had said. He shuddered to think what would have happened if he had been left to his own devices. Orange always seemed like a nice color before he left…

Breaking his increasingly morbid train of thought, he gave a woeful glance at his half completed work. It appeared that his amazing display of pyrotechnic perfection would have to be completed at some other point in time. Reluctantly, he removed himself from his work, sealing it into a traveling scroll along with his ink and brush. Standing up, he stretched his stiff neck, then ventured off to see what was happening.

As he strode through the stacks of empty boxes, dim lights flickering overhead, he began to discern comforting murmurs interspersed in the loud groaning. Moments later, he walked into the area designated for Yakuro to sleep, immediately noticing Zabuza lying on the bed, groaning weakly, if loudly, and rubbing his side, where a large patch of recently-healed pink flesh was slowly becoming red. Fussing over him dutifully, much like a nurse, was his apprentice, Haku. The doctor, Yakuro, was no where to be found.

Slowly, Zabuza lifted the arm not pawing at his no doubt aching side, then motioned towards the jug of water sitting on a crate nearby. Haku's eyes widened, and she rushed over to grab it, jumping back in surprise as she noticed Naruto standing there watchfully. Naruto smiled at her surprise, then silently handed the jug to her, motioning to give it to Zabuza. He was no stranger to medical jutsu, and new that they could leave a nin severely dehydrated if not given water regularly.

After drinking about half the jug, Zabuza spluttered for a minute, then coughed for a good extra minute. After allowing his breathing to return to normal, he turned to Haku, questioning, "Haku, where the hell are we?" Thinking a moment, he added, "And where the hell is my sword?"

Smiling, Haku responded, "It's good to have you back, Zabuza-sama. To answer your question, after you were defeated, I completed the extraction as planned. On my return to the hideout, I was intercepted by an additional group of Konoha ninja." She grimaced, and Zabuza's expression turned sour, "I was soundly defeated in battle, after which a deal was struck. In return for our aid in defeating Gato, Konoha will use some of the assets it will gain to fund our Coup."

Zabuza's frown turned to a greedy grin. "Then our mission is half over. With all the money we're gonna get from this, we'll have the Mizukage's seat in no time!"

Haku smiled, "Yes, as soon as Gato is dead, our struggle will be half over. As to where your sword is, I believe Yakuro, the man who healed you, has it."

Zabuza frowned once more, "Well, he'd better give it the fuck back!"

Haku frowned in turn, "I would appreciate it if you did not use such vulgar language to describe the man who saved your life!" Realizing her unintentional mistake, she quickly looked down in submission, waiting for the verbal beating that she was sure would follow. To her chagrin, Zabuza broke out into loud laughter.

"So that's what sets you off, eh? 'Been tryin' to figure it out for years!" He lightly snorted, then continued, "We'll make a true Shinobi of you yet!"

Noticing the other occupant in the room, he frowned yet again. "Who the hell are you?"

"Oh!" said Haku, "I haven't introduced you yet! Zabuza-sama, meet Naruto, Yakuro's apprentice."

Naruto waved, and Zabuza eyed him critically. "Doesn't look like much to me." he said, dismissively, "He's a little on the short side, and his muscle tone looks a little weak."

Naruto's eye twitched, and he replied angrily, "Hey! I'm not done growing yet, give me a few years, and I'll be taller than you! And not all of us happen to wield a zanbatou enough to build the kind of muscles you have!" He paused, seething, then added indignantly, "I'll have you know that I specialize in elemental jutsu. Jackass."

Zabuza sweatdropped, then said placatingly, "Geese, ok! I'm sure you're a great Shinobi! Just, don't hurt me while I'm injured!"

Haku brightened, then interjected, "Actually, due to Yakuro's careful healing, you're perfectly fine, just a little stiff!"

Zabuza's eyes widened, and he slowly clambered off of the bed, joints popping as they realigned. With a quick stretch of his arms, the nuke-nin was battle-ready once again. Yakuro chose that exact moment to walk in, his poufy hair rounding the corner in front of him. As he entered, a small bundle of fish resting in his arms, Zabuza eyed him critically. After he dropped the fish, the quartet stared at each other in silence, waiting for someone else to explain what was going on.

Zabuza broke the ice, hesitantly turning to Yakuro and clearing his throat. "I heard that I have you to thank for my speedy recovery," he said begrudgingly.

Yakuro smiled warmly, recognizing that apologies were hard for the callous nuke-nin. "Yes, I was the one who brought you here and healed you. It was part of the agreement that I made with your apprentice."

"Yeah," said Zabuza, "I guess it would work out. It's going a bit fast for me, but I'll catch up soon." He eyed Yakuro for a minute, "So our job is to beat the shit out of Gato, right?"

Yakuro grinned, then nodded, "Yes, as you so eloquently put it, we must "beat the shit" out of Gato, then seize all of his assets, a portion of which will be delivered to you in exchange for your services.

They continued to talk on the subject for quite some time, ironing out the specifics of the plan, how much money would be involved, things of that nature. As time wore on, the group found themselves increasingly disinterested, and so they resigned themselves to lounging around the room. They were still missing two members of their party, and the discussions weren't really complete without them.

After a good two hours of waiting patiently, they heard the front door of the warehouse slam open hurriedly. All the Shinobi present immediately jumped to their feet, drawing various projectiles for defense. To their chagrin, Sasuke and Sarutobi came dashing into the room, breathing heavily, as if they had sprinted for a good 10 minutes. Their clothes were torn and burnt, and light cuts adorned their bodies, although they had escaped much of the heavier damage. Sasuke was much worse off than Sarutobi, and so the aging Hokage struggled to speak to the group.

"Sasori…Deidara…Akatsuki…Gato." He gasped out.  
Yakuro's eyes widened at this proclamation. The remaining trio of Shinobi looked at him questioningly. After a moment of complete silence, he said, in the gravest tone, "We have two S-classed Shinobi bearing down on our location. Prepare yourselves, because the shit is gonna hit the fan."

**A/N: **Hehehe… CLIFFY!!!!!!

I win at life, don't I?

Anyway, here's the newest update, hope you liked it. I sure as hell enjoy writing it, when I can get the time. This one's still a little shorter than the earlier chapters, as I'm trying to change the structure to one major scene per chapter. Next chapter is going to be epic fight scene, and it's going to be at least 5000 words.

On another note, I noticed that a lot of you seem to be reading, and a crapload of people have signed up for alerts, but almost no one has left a review. Please, take a couple seconds out of your day and tell me at least one thing I did right/wrong. Hell, I'll accept nitpicky technical errors as well. Just give me FEEDBACK!!!! I always reply to criticism, so if there's something you don't like or don't understand, maybe I can clarify it for you. My mind does not think with the same logic that everyone else's does.


	6. In which the writer hides far away

To all the people who have read this story,

Hi all! Basically, this note is a cop-out, plain and simple.

The fact of the matter is, I have problems with hand-eye coordination, and so my typing speed is actually pretty slow. My inspiration runs at about 90 miles a minute, and I just can't keep up.

I have great ideas for where this should go, and amazing weapons/skills to bring into play, but frankly, progress has slowed to a halt, as I wind up frustrated that I'm stuck so far behind my inspiration every time I sit down to write.

Because of this, I'll probably go into writing oneshots, or pieces that build some kind of AU aspect into cannon, i.e. Necromancy. My goal here is to take the plot generator that is my mind and put it to good use. As of right now, all my stories are up for adoption or expansion to your heart's content. Just leave a review or pm me, and I'll let you know the basics of what I think should happen, and you can take over work.

Sorry to those of you I've disappointed by writing this, but I figured it was about time to give up the ghost. If you want some hope, however, the next chapter is partially written, and could potentially be completed at some point. Problem is, I'm not really that much of a writer, although due more to physical limitations than creativity.

Sincerely,

IOwePapaSmurfMoney

(…because I really do! NEVER bet on horse races, people. NEVER!)


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